SCALABLE VIDEO ENCODING METHOD AND DECODING METHOD, APPARATUSES THEREFOR, PROGRAMS THEREFOR, AND STORAGE MEDIA WHICH STORE THE PROGRAMS

摘要

A moving picture scalable encoding method for predicting an upper-layer s ignal of high spatial resolution from the immediately lower-layer signal of a low spatial resolution by interpolation and encoding the data. Search to e stimate a motion between an encoding subject image region of the upper-layer and a reference image region is conducted. For each image region of a prede termined unit, a first weighting factor based on the variation of brightness between an image region present in the same spatial position as an encoding subject image region of the immediately lower layer and the reference image region is calculated. The motion is estimated from the signal generated by correcting the decoded signal of the reference image region with the first w eighting factor and used as an estimating signal to calculate the motion vec tor. A second weighting factor based on the variation of brightness between the reference image region specified by the motion vector and an image regio n present in the same spatial region as an encoding subject image region in the immediately-lower layer is calculated. A compensation signal for motion compensation generated by correcting the decoded signal of the reference ima ge region with the second weight factor is used as a prediction signal of th e encoding subject image region.