Monolith Company, Ltd.

Hiroki Nagashima

Kozo Akiyoshi

Nobuo Akiyoshi

Yoshihisa Shinagawa

An image data coding and decoding technique which realizes most efficient compression of the image data. The image data are input and separated into key frames and other intermediate frames. Per-pixel matching is computed between the key frames. A virtual intermediate frame between these key frames is generated by interpolating the matching-computed result. Difference is taken between the intermediate virtual frames and actual intermediate frames which have existed from the outset, so that the actual intermediate frames are encoded with the minimum quantity of codes.

Method and apparatus for coding and decoding image data using critical points

An image input unit acquires a first image and a second image. A matching processor computes a pixel matching between the images so that corresponding points are obtained on the second image with respect to lattice points of a mesh defined on the first image. A result thereof is recorded as a corresponding point file. An intermediate image generator generates an intermediate image of the first image and the second image based on the corresponding point file. Since the corresponding point file is composed of corresponding lattice points alone rather than corresponding pixels or the like, the amount of data is relatively small, and thereby allows efficient implementation of and application to various image effects, motion picture compression, on-line commodity presentation, and mobile applications.

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Chiba, Japan

Hiroki Nagashima