Partition coding method and device

A method of coding segmented pictures, or partitions, divided into homogeneous regions to which specific labels are respectively associated, characterized in that it comprises, for each successive partition, the steps of:

• (a) translating the picture of labels into a description in terms of a contour element chain in which the elements are defined by means of their movements through successive basic cells, between an input point and an output point of said cells;
• (b) tracking inside each successive cell each contour from its initial contour point, previously extracted, to its end by storing chain symbols corresponding both to input, internal and output contour elements of said cell and to priorities between possible multiple outputs elements;
• (c) repeating these steps up to the end of each successive contour segment of the concerned partition;
• (d) coding the information corresponding in each cell to the initial point of each contour segment and to the associated chain of movements between that initial point and the initial one of the following cell;
• said successive steps defining a so-called intra-mode coding process of image partitions.