Patent ID: 7012958

Claim:
An intra-mode coding method for coding segmented pictures, or partitions, divided into homogeneous regions to which specific labels are respectively associated, wherein for each successive partition, the method comprising the steps of: (a) translating the picture of labels into a description in terms of a contour element chain in which the elements are defined by means of their movements through successive basic cells, between an input point and an output point of said cells; (b) tracking inside each successive cell each contour from its initial contour point, previously extracted, to its end by storing chain symbols corresponding both to input, internal and output contour elements of said cell and to priorities between possible multiple outputs elements, wherein the output contour point of highest priority on the basis of the longest contour path linking the input contour point with the possible output contour points is maintained; (c) repeating these steps up to the end of each successive contour segment of the concerned partition; (d) coding the information corresponding in each cell to the initial point of each contour segment and to the associated chain of movements between that initial point and the initial one of the following cell; said successive steps defining a so-called intra-mode coding process of image partitions; wherein during said repeating step, multiple points symbols are introduced in the chain of symbols when a contour is ended, and the closing of a contour occurs on an input or output contour point of a previous cell or on any contour point having as a following neighbor an input or output contour point of a previous cell.