Sony Corporation

Yukio Yanagihara

Nobuhiro Igi

Toshiyuki Katsumoto

Hiromasa Watanabe

Yoshinori Shimizu

Mitsuhiro Okano

An image encoding device includes a single image pickup unit generating image data by shooting a subject, an image compression unit generating digital image data by encoding the image data, a distance measuring unit measuring a distance to the subject during the shooting, and a multiplexing unit generating multiplexed data based on the digital image data and the measured distance by multiplexing distance data indicating the distance to a subject of each of given pixel blocks of the digital image data onto the digital image data.

Image encoding device and image encoding method with distance information

An image compression apparatus includes: first and second imaging sections for capturing an image of a subject to generate first and second image signals, respectively; first and second encoding sections for encoding the first and second image signals to generate first and second image data, respectively; first and second distance measuring sections for measuring a distance to the subject for each of image blocks, at the same time as the first and second imaging sections perform image capturing, to generate first and second distance information, respectively; first and second multiplexing sections for generating first and second multiplexed data on the basis of the first and second image data and the distance, respectively, by respectively multiplexing the first and second image data and first and second distance data, which are generated on the basis of the first and second distance information and indicate the distance to the subject for each of predefined pixel blocks in the first and second image data, respectively; and a compression processing section for reducing amounts of the first and second multiplexed data to generate compressed data. The compression processing section generates the compressed data by extracting long-distance blocks in the first and second image data on the basis of the first and second distance data, respectively, calculating a differential between the long-distance blocks in the first and second multiplexed data, and deleting the long-distance blocks in the first or second multiplexed data which are identical to their counterparts in the other multiplexed data.

Image compression apparatus and image compression method

A DVD recorder is provided which includes an NTSC decoder () for converting an NTSC-based TV signal into an ITU-R BT. 601-based video signal, an MPEG encoder () for encoding the ITU-R BT. 601-based video signal into an MPEG-2 data stream, a driver () for recording the MPEG-2-based data stream to a DVD disk, and a VBI slice circuit () for detecting VBI from the TV signal. When the V timing of an input signal is asynchronous with that of recording signal, the MPEG encoder () inserts null data as blanking data into an arbitrary frame if a frame repeat has occurred or deletes null data from blanking data from an arbitrary frame if a frame skip has occurred.

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Chiba, Japan

Yukio Yanagihara