Method of coding an arbitrary shape of an object when all pixels of an entire region of a display are used as texture for the object

Abstract

A method of coding an object of an arbitrary shape. The arbitrary shape coding method includes the steps of: (a) determining whether or not a shape in a video object layer (VOL) is an arbitrary shape; (b) calculating the size of a video object plane (VOP) in each frame if the shape in the VOL is determined as being an arbitrary shape in the step (a); (c) coding information of each frame about whether or not all macroblocks in the VOP are opaque; (d) coding the VOP in macroblock units if the shape of each frame is determined not to be all opaque in the step (c); and (e) coding only motion and texture information in the VOP, by macroblock, if the shape in the VOL is determined to be a non-arbitrary shape in the step (a) or if the shape in the VOP in a frame is determined as all opaque in step (c). Therefore, when all pixels of the entire display region are used as the texture of the object, the coding of the arbitrary shape can be achieved by coding only 1-bit information per VOP, without the need for transmission of the shape information requiring 1.about.3 bits per macroblock. Also, the number of modules required for the coding based on a macroblock is reduced from 4 to 2, thereby reducing the amount of calculation for encoding.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.