# US 2019/0246137 A1 · Image processing apparatus and method > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2019/0246137 A1 - Document ID: US20190246137A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 16/386,739 - Filed: 2019-04-17 - Published: 2019-08-08 - Earliest claimed: 2011-11-10 - Assignees: Sony Corporation - Applicants: Sony Corporation - Inventors: Kazushi SATO - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190246137A1 ## CPC - H04N 19/52: by predictive encoding - H04N 19/503: involving temporal prediction (adaptive coding with adaptive selection between spatial and temporal predictive coding H04N19/107; adaptive coding with adaptive selection among a plurality of temporal predictive coding modes H04N19/109) - H04N 19/593: involving spatial prediction techniques - H04N 19/33: in the spatial domain - H04N 19/597: specially adapted for multi-view video sequence encoding - H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION ## Abstract The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method capable of improving processing efficiency with pipeline processing in encoding or decoding of a motion vector. In a motion vector encoding unit, such configuration is adopted that when a spatial prediction motion vector is derived according to AMVP or Merge mode, the use of a motion vector of a PU adjacent to a top right of a PU in question is prohibited. Therefore, the motion vector encoding unit performs encoding processing of a motion vector by using only motion vector information of B1, B2 which are PUs located at Top with respect to the PU in question and A0, A1 which are PUs located at Left with respect to the PU in question. The present disclosure can be applied to, for example, an image processing apparatus. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An image decoding apparatus, comprising: circuitry configured to: set a candidate of a block of a prediction motion vector used by a merge mode so that a block neighboring to a top right of a current block is not available as the candidate; generate a prediction image of the current block based on the prediction motion vector of the candidate; and decode the prediction image. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The image decoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: set the candidate so that the block neighboring to the top right of the current block is not available as the candidate, as a condition that the prediction image is generated with a parallel processing. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The image decoding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: generate the prediction image with the parallel processing. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The image decoding apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the parallel processing is pipeline processing. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The image decoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: set the candidate so that a block neighboring to a top of the current block is not available as the candidate. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The image decoding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: set the candidate in a maximum encoding unit so that a block neighboring to a top of the current block is not available as the candidate. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The image decoding apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the circuitry is further configured to: determine whether a border of the current block is a boarder of the maximum encoding unit; and set the candidate so that the block neighboring to the top of the current block is not available as the candidate as a condition that the border of the current block is determined as the border of the maximum encoding unit. ### Claim 8 An image decoding method, comprising: setting a candidate of a block of a prediction motion vector used by a merge mode so that a block neighboring to a top right of a current block is not available as the candidate; generating a prediction image of the current block based on the prediction motion vector of the candidate; and decoding the prediction image. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The image decoding method according to claim 8, further comprising: setting the candidate so that the block neighboring to the top right of the current block is not available as the candidate, as a condition that the prediction image is generated with a parallel processing. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The image decoding method according to claim 9, further comprising: generating the prediction image with the parallel processing. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The image decoding method according to claim 10, wherein the parallel processing is pipeline processing. ### Claim 12 (depends on 8) The image decoding method according to claim 8, further comprising: setting the candidate so that a block neighboring to a top of the current block is not available as the candidate. ### Claim 13 (depends on 8) The image decoding method according to claim 8, further comprising: setting the candidate in a maximum encoding unit so that a block neighboring to a top of the current block is not available as the candidate. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The image decoding method according to claim 13, further comprising: determining whether a border of the current block is a boarder of the maximum encoding unit; and setting the candidate so that the block neighboring to the top of the current block is not available as the candidate as a condition that the border of the current block is determined as the border of the maximum encoding unit. ### Claim 15 A non-transitory computer-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to execute a method, the method comprising: setting a candidate of a block of a prediction motion vector used by a merge mode so that a block neighboring to a top right of a current block is not available as the candidate; generating a prediction image of the current block based on the prediction motion vector of the candidate; and decoding the prediction image.