IMAGE ENCODING APPARATUS, IMAGE DECODING APPARATUS, METHODS OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

摘要

This invention enables more efficiently storing and managing light field data. To accomplish this, when encoding N (N>1) viewpoint images captured by a light field imaging unit, an encoding apparatus calculates the average value of the values of N corresponding pixels corresponding to each other in the N viewpoint images and generates an image having the average value as the value of a pixel and focused at a predetermined focal position. The encoding apparatus generates (N - 1) types of difference values used to derive the values of the corresponding pixels in the N viewpoint images from the value of the pixel of the generated image focused at the predetermined focal position. The encoding apparatus encodes the generated image and difference information formed from the (N - 1) types of difference values.