Buffer apparatus

Abstract

A buffer device stores, in relation to a first area and a second area, which are partial areas respectively located on an identical line of an encoding target frame, and a third area, which is a partial area on the line below the identical line, reference image data for each search range of a reference frame that is referred to during motion search processing executed in order of the first area, the second area, and the third area, the buffer device including a memory for storing the reference image data, and a buffer control unit which, when the motion search processing is executed on the second area, executes control so that among the reference image data included in a first search range that is referred to during the motion search processing of the first area, the reference image data included in a third search range that is referred to during the motion search processing of the third area are left in the memory without being deleted.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.