Image incoding apparatus, method and program

• US 20040042670A1
• Filed: 08/18/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Noda, Tsugio, Moroo, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 7,430,326 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/232
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/005 Statistical coding, e.g. Huffman, run length coding

Abstract

An image encoding apparatus comprises an image input unit 12 for entering image data, a block split unit 14 for splitting the entered image data into a plurality of blocks, a block extractor unit 16 and an averaging unit 18, both of which act as a value acquisition unit for acquiring a certain value from the split block image, and a code generation unit 20 for generating a code based on the acquired value of the block image.

Claims

1. An image encoding apparatus comprising:

an image input unit for entering image data;

a split unit for splitting the entered image data into a plurality of blocks;

a value acquisition unit for acquiring a certain value from the split block image; and

a code generation unit for generating a code based on the acquired value of the block image.

2. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the code generation unit generates a code by comparing a predefined threshold value and the acquired value of a specific block image within the image.

3. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the code generation unit generates a code by comparing the acquired value of a specific block image within the image and the acquired value of another block image.

4. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the code generation unit generates a code depending on the positional relation between the acquired values of neighboring blocks.

5. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the split unit further splits the block image into a plurality of sub-blocks, and wherein the value acquisition unit acquires a certain value for each sub-block image, and wherein the code generation unit generates a code from the positional relation between the acquired values of the sub-block images within the block image.

6. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the code generation unit detects a pair of sub-block having a minimum difference from the acquired values of the sub-block images within the block image, the code generation unit generating a code of the block image from the positional relation between the pair of sub-blocks detected.

7. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is encoded by the split unit, the value acquisition unit and the code generation unit, using part of the image entered.

8. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the value acquisition unit acquires as the value of the block image the average density, granularity, chroma, or center of gravity of density.

9. The image encoding apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a data conversion unit for converting the image code generated by the code generation unit into other data, using a conversion table.

10. An image encoding method comprising:

an image input step for entering image data;

a split step for splitting the entered image data into a plurality of blocks;

a value acquisition step for acquiring a certain value from the split block image; and

a code generation step for generating a code based on the acquired value of the block image.

11. The image encoding method according to claim 10, wherein the code generation step includes generating a code by comparing a predefined threshold value and the acquired value of a specific block image within the image.

12. The image encoding method according to claim 10, wherein the code generation unit includes generating a code by comparing the acquired value of a specific block image within the image and the acquired value of another block image.

13. The image encoding method according to claim 10, wherein the code generation step includes generating a code depending on the positional relation between the acquired values of neighboring blocks.

14. The image encoding method according to claim 10, wherein the split step includes further splitting the block image into a plurality of sub-blocks, and wherein the value acquisition step includes acquiring a certain value for each sub-block image, and wherein the code generation step includes generating a code from the positional relation between the acquired values of the sub-block images within the block image.

15. The image encoding method according to claim 14, wherein the code generation step includes detecting a pair of sub-block having a minimum difference from the acquired values of the sub-block images within the block image, the code generation step including generating a code of the block image from the positional relation between the pair of sub-blocks detected.

16. The image encoding method according to claim 10, wherein the image is encoded by the split step, the value acquisition step and the code generation step, using part of the image entered.

17. The image encoding method according to claim 10, wherein the value acquisition step includes acquiring as the value of the block image the average density, granularity, chroma, or center of gravity of density.

18. The image encoding method according to claim 10, further comprising a data conversion step for converting the image code generated by the code generation unit into other data, using a conversion table.

19. A program allowing a computer to execute:

an image input step for entering image data;

a split step for splitting the entered image data into a plurality of blocks;

a value acquisition step for acquiring a certain value from the split block image; and

a code generation step for generating a code based on the acquired value of the block image.

20. The program according to claim 19, allowing a computer to further execute a data conversion step for converting the image code generated by the code generation unit into other data, using a conversion table.