Patent ID: 6963610

Claim:
A moving image coding device that makes a compression and coding for moving images, said image coding device comprising: means for analyzing images, which exist in a constant interval, to observe characteristics of each image; based on said observed characteristics, means for estimating complexity degrees of said images; means for pre-allocating a code quantity to said constant interval, and computing a target code quantity with which said pre-allocated code quantity is assigned to each image for all images within said constant interval based on said estimated complexity degrees; a buffer which accumulates a code that is generated as a result of having coded said images; when said computed target code quantity is assigned to each of said images, means for predicting a transition of occupancy in said buffer of said accumulated code with said computed target code quantity and regulating said target code quantity so that the predicted transition of the buffer occupancy does not give rise to an overflow or an underflow; and means for making a compression and coding for said images according to said regulated target code quantity.