Patent ID: 7295713

Claim:
A method for encoding a digital image in a block-based manner, in which a spatial prediction for a block is performed to reduce amount of information to be transmitted, wherein the method comprises: determining a classification for at least two neighboring blocks of a block to be predicted according to the image contents of said neighboring blocks; selecting a sub-set of prediction methods from a set of available prediction methods on the basis of the classifications of said at least two neighboring blocks; defining an arrangement for the list of said sub-set of prediction methods in a rank order, said rank order determined on the basis of the classifications of said at least two neighboring blocks, wherein each prediction method in the said list has a unique rank with respect to each of the other prediction methods; selecting a prediction method for the block to be predicted from said sub-set of prediction methods; forming a spatial prediction for the block to be predicted using the selected prediction method; and providing a signal representative of rank of the selected prediction method.