IMAGE ENCODING DEVICE AND METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain the use of a common circuit regardless of the detection range of a motion vector that is set when the motion vector is coded and accordingly to simplify the circuit constitution by coding the motion vector based on the value larger than the (f) code value that is previously decided in response to the motion detection range set in an input image. SOLUTION: A motion detection circuit 138 detects a reference macro block that is most similar to a current block included in a current image and then detects the positional deviation of the macro block as a motion vector. The detected motion vector is outputted to a VLC(variable length coding) circuit and coded by the prescribed (f) code value. Thus, the circuit 138 fixes its motion detection range at the value equivalent to about 3% to 4% of an input image size for its processing. Accordingly, the circuit 138 does not need any processing circuit to set a motion detection range according to the inter-frame distance and also has to use a memory of fixed small capacity to simplify its constitution.