Patent ID: 8369633

Claim:
A method for encoding an image, the method comprising: receiving the image in a module; cropping a region of interest from the image in reference to an identified region of interest and an identified region of non-interest; generating a background ignored identifier indicating whether the region of non-interest is ignored; setting the background ignored identifier effective, when the region of non-interest is substantially similar to a region of non-interest in a previous image, otherwise, setting the background ignored identifier ineffective; down-sampling the original image or the cropped region of interest of the image to obtain a base layer image; encoding the base layer image to generate a base layer bit stream and base layer data; and encoding the cropped region of interest of the image to generate an enhancement layer bit stream or the image to generate an enhancement layer bit stream when the background ignored identifier is ineffective, wherein the background ignored identifier includes: a base layer background ignored identifier indicating whether the region of non-interest is ignored when the encoding of the base layer image is performed, and an enhancement layer background ignored identifier indicating whether the region of non-interest is ignored when the encoding of the cropped region of interest is performed, wherein the cropping of the region of interest from the image is performed as long as one of the base layer background ignored identifier and the enhancement layer background ignored identifier is effective, the encoding of the cropped region of interest is replaced by the encoding of the image to generate the enhancement layer bit stream when the enhancement layer background ignored identifier is ineffective.