IMAGE ENCODING METHOD AND APPARATUS, IMAGE DECODING METHOD AND APPARATUS, AND IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM

摘要

A method and an apparatus for using the pattern matching technique, so as to express encoded data in a compact manner, thereby improving the encoding efficiency. A waveform vector similar to a partial signal waveform of an image signal is sought. When compressing/encoding information identifying the found waveform vector, similarity information expressing the similarity degree, and the in-image position of the partial signal waveform, the in-image position of the partial signal waveform is replaced by position information of the image signal in a predetermined partial region. Thus, the in-image position of the partial signal waveform most similar to the waveform vector is encoded by replacing it with the position information of the image signal in the predetermined partial region. Accordingly, it is possible to express the position in a compact manner.