Patent attributes
In order to enhance the picture quality of a detected area, the present invention provides a video coding apparatus. In the apparatus, a reliability indicative of the degree of coincidence of an area detected by an important area detecting section with a real important area is calculated, and a coding parameter calculating section calculates a coding parameter to be set to the detected area according to the reliability, thereby controlling the picture quality of the detected area. Consequently, a whole image has a coding bit amount which does not break the restrictions of a transmission bit rate, and a larger coding bit amount is assigned to the important area so that a picture quality thereof can be improved and a visibility can be enhanced. In addition, the picture quality is more enhanced if a probability that the detected area might be an important area is higher.