Image data coding apparatus and method capable of controlling amount of codes

An image data coding apparatus comprising:

• preprocessing means for executing preprocessing including compression for input image data in units of screens to generate a preprocessed output;
• quantizing means for quantizing the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with a predetermined quantization width to generate a quantized output;
• variable-length coding means for executing variable-length coding for the quantized output generated by said quantizing means to generate a coded output;
• calculating means for calculating an amount of codes in units of screens on the basis of the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means to output a calculated amount of codes;
• control means for outputting a target amount of codes corresponding to one screen, a first command for executing the preprocessing, and a second command for executing the variable-length coding after the preprocessing is finished;
• and
• quantization width predicting means for, upon reception of the first command from said control means, predicting a suitable quantization width on the basis of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a first quantization width to said quantizing means, and upon reception of the second command from said control means, correcting the first quantization width to cause it to fall within the range of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a second quantization width obtained by the correction to said quantizing means,
• wherein said quantizing means quantizes the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means on the basis of the second quantization width.

An image data coding apparatus comprising:

• preprocessing means for dividing input image data in units of screens into blocks and executing preprocessing including compression for image data of each block to generate a preprocessed output;
• quantizing means for quantizing the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with a predetermined quantization width to generate a quantized output;
• variable-length coding means for executing variable-length coding for the quantized output generated by said quantizing means to generate a coded output;
• calculating means for calculating an amount of codes in units of screens on the basis of the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means to output a calculated amount of codes;
• control means for outputting a target amount of codes corresponding to one screen, a first command for executing the preprocessing, and a second command for executing the variable-length coding after the preprocessing is finished;
• quantization width predicting means for, upon reception of the first command from said control means, predicting a suitable quantization width on the basis of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a first quantization width to said quantizing means, and upon reception of the second command from said control means, correcting the first quantization width to cause it to fall within the range of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a second quantization width obtained by the correction to said quantizing means;
• assigned-amount-of-codes calculating means for calculating an assigned amount of codes to be assigned to each block on the basis of the calculated amount of codes from said calculating means and the target amount of codes from said control means during execution of the preprocessing;
• and
• coding stop means for outputting a stop command for stopping coding of a block executed by said variable-length coding means when the calculated amount of codes calculated by said calculating means for the block reaches the assigned amount of codes assigned to the block during execution of the variable-length coding,
• wherein said quantizing means quantizes the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means by the second quantization width output from said quantization width predicting means, and said variable-length coding means stops the variable-length coding for a block presently being processed each time said variable-length coding means receives the stop command from said coding stop means.

An image data coding apparatus comprising:

• preprocessing means for executing preprocessing including compression for input image data in units of screens to generate a preprocessed output;
• quantizing means for quantizing the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with a predetermined quantization width to generate a quantized output;
• variable-length coding means for executing variable-length coding for the quantized output generated by said quantizing means to generate a coded output;
• calculating means for calculating an amount of codes in units of screens on the basis of the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means to output a calculated amount of codes;
• control means for outputting a first command for obtaining an optimal quantization width, checking on the basis of the calculated amount of codes from said calculating means whether the command is to be output again, and outputting a second command for executing the variable-length coding when the optimal quantization width is finally obtained, said control means further generating a target amount of codes corresponding to one screen;
• and
• quantization width predicting means for, upon reception of the first command, predicting a quantization width corresponding to the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a first quantization width to said quantizing means, correcting the first quantization width to cause it to fall within the range of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying a second quantization width obtained by the correction to said quantizing means, and, upon reception of the second command, supplying information concerning the optimal quantization width to said quantizing means.

An electronic camera apparatus comprising:

• an image pickup system for outputting image data concerning an object to be photographed;
• preprocessing means for executing preprocessing including compression for the image data output in units of screens from said image pickup system to generate a preprocessed output;
• quantizing means for quantizing the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with a predetermined quantization width to generate a quantized output;
• variable-length coding means for executing variable-length coding for the quantized output generated by said quantizing means;
• recording means for recording the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means in a recording medium so that the recorded data can be read out;
• target-amount-of-codes output means for outputting information concerning a target amount of codes corresponding to one screen;
• and
• quantization width predicting means for predicting a suitable quantization width on the basis of the information output from said target-amount-of-codes output means to supply information concerning the predicted quantization width to said quantizing means,
• wherein said quantizing means quantizes the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with the predicted quantization width generated by said quantization width predicting means, and said recording means records the information concerning the predicted quantization width from said quantization width predicting means in said recording medium so that the recorded information can be read out.

An electronic camera comprising:

• an image pickup system for outputting image data concerning an object to be photographed;
• preprocessing means for executing preprocessing including compression for the image data output in units of screens from said image pickup system to generate a preprocessed output;
• quantizing means for quantizing the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with a predetermined quantization width to generate a quantized output;
• variable-length coding means for executing variable-length coding for the quantized output generated by said quantizing means to generate a coded output;
• recording means for recording the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means in a recording medium so that the recorded data can be read out;
• calculating means for calculating an amount of codes in units of screens on the basis of the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means to output a calculated amount of codes;
• control means for outputting a target amount of codes corresponding to one screen, a first command for executing the preprocessing, and a second command for executing the variable-length coding after the preprocessing is finished;
• and
• quantization width predicting means for, upon reception of the first command from said control means, predicting a suitable quantization width on the basis of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a first quantization width to said quantizing means, and, upon reception of the second command from said control means, correcting the first quantization width to cause it to fall within the range of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a second quantization width obtained by the correction to said quantizing means,
• wherein said quantizing means quantizes the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means on the basis of the second quantization width, and said recording means records the information concerning the predicted quantization width from said quantization width predicting means in said recording medium so that the recorded information can be read out.

An electronic camera comprising:

• an image pickup system for outputting image data concerning an object to be photographed;
• preprocessing means for dividing the image data output in units of screens from said image pickup system into blocks and executing preprocessing including compression for image data of each block to generate a preprocessed output;
• quantizing means for quantizing the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with a predetermined quantization width to generate a quantized output;
• variable-length coding means for executing variable-length coding for the quantized output generated by said quantizing means to generate a coded output;
• recording means for recording the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means in a recording medium so that the recorded data can be read out;
• calculating means for calculating an amount of codes in units of screens on the basis of the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means to output a calculated amount of codes;
• control means for outputting a target amount of codes corresponding to one screen, a first command for executing the preprocessing, and a second command for executing the variable-length coding after the preprocessing is finished;
• quantization width predicting means for, upon reception of the first command from said control means, predicting a suitable quantization width on the basis of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a first quantization width to said quantizing means, and upon reception of the second command from said control means, correcting the first quantization width to cause it to fall within the range of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a second quantization width obtained by the correction to said quantizing means;
• assigned-amount-of-codes calculating means for calculating an assigned amount of codes to be assigned to each block on the basis of the calculated amount of codes from said calculating means and the target amount of codes from said control means during execution of the preprocessing;
• and
• coding stop means for outputting a stop command for stopping coding of a block executed by said variable-length coding means when the calculated amount of codes calculated by said calculating means for the block reaches the assigned amount of codes assigned to the block during execution of the variable-length coding,
• wherein said quantizing means quantizes the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means by the second quantization width output from said variable-length coding means stops the variable-length coding for a block presently being processed each time said variable-length coding means receives the stop command from said coding stop means, and said recording means records the information concerning the predicted quantization width from said quantization width predicting means in said recording medium so that the recorded data can be read out.

An electronic camera comprising:

• an image pickup system for outputting image data concerning an object to be photographed;
• preprocessing means for executing preprocessing including compression for the image data output in units of screens from said image pickup system to generate a preprocessed output;
• quantizing means for quantizing the preprocessed output generated by said preprocessing means with a predetermined quantization width to generate a quantized output;
• variable-length coding means for executing variable-length coding for the quantized output generated by said quantizing means to generate a coded output;
• recording means for recording the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means in a recording medium so that the recorded data can be read out;
• calculating means for calculating an amount of codes in units of screens on the basis of the coded output generated by said variable-length coding means to output a calculated amount of codes;
• control means for outputting a first command for obtaining an optimal quantization width, checking on the basis of the calculated amount of codes from said calculating means whether the command is to be output again, and outputting a second command for executing the variable-length coding when the optimal quantization width is finally obtained, said control means further generating a target amount of codes corresponding to one screen;
• and
• quantization width predicting means for, upon reception of the first command, predicting a quantization width corresponding to the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying information concerning a first quantization width to said quantizing means, correcting the first quantization width to cause it to fall within the range of the target amount of codes from said control means and supplying a second quantization width obtained by the correction to said quantizing means, and, upon reception of the second command, supplying information concerning the optimal quantization width to said quantizing means,
• wherein said recording means records the information concerning the predicted quantization width from said quantization width predicting means in said recording medium so that the recorded information can be read out.

A coding method of dividing image data of one screen into blocks, executing preprocessing including image information compression for each block, quantizing the preprocessed data with a predetermined quantization width, and executing variable-length coding for the quantized data, said coding means comprising:

• a first step of setting the qauntization width in correspondence with a target amount of codes concerning the image data of one screen;
• a second step of calculating an amount of codes of each block and an amount of codes of one screen on the basis of data of each block subjected to preprocessing, quantizing with the quantization width set in said first step, and variable length coding;
• a third state of assigning an amount of codes to each block based on the amount of codes of each block and the amount of codes of one screen calculated in said second step;
• a fourth step of predicting a quantization width required for optimization;
• and
• a fifth step of executing preprocessing, quantizing with the quantization width predicted in said fourth step, and variable length coding for each block within a range of the amount of codes assigned to each block, by stopping the coding of higher frequency components.

A coding method of executing preprocessing including image information compression for image data of one screen, quantizing the preprocessed image data with a set quantization width, and executing variable-length coding for the quantized data, comprising:

• the first step of obtaining a standard optimal quantization width determined in correspondence with a target amount of codes concerning the image data of one screen and setting the obtained optimal quantization width as a temporary quantization width;
• the second step of calculating an amount of codes of one screen on the basis of the variable-length-coded image data;
• the third step of predicting an optimal quantization width for converging the calculated amount of codes to the target amount of codes and setting the predicted optimal quantization width as a new set quantization width;
• the fourth step of quantizing the preprocessed image data by using the new set quantization width to calculate an amount of codes of one screen again;
• the fifth step of comparing the target amount of codes with the calculated amount of codes, setting the new quantization width as re-optimization processing if the calculated amount of codes is smaller than the target amount of codes and falls outside a predetermined allowable range, and quantizing the preprocessed image data by using the new set quantization width as final processing if the calculated amount of codes falls within the predetermined allowable range;
• and
• the sixth step of obtaining the variable-length-coded as target final image data if the quantization is the final processing.