On the contrary, when histograms of a picture of the corresponding block are concentrated on the side parts in the entire intensity range, a method of dividing the side parts more densely to set the bands and dividing the central part less densely to set the bands may be considered. Specifically, when pixels of N bits are concentrated on the side parts in the entire intensity range (0 to 2N?1), M bands having small intensity intervals may be set in the side parts and L bands having large intensity intervals may be set in the central part.
In the example illustrated in
When histograms of the picture of the corresponding block are concentrated on the side parts in the entire intensity range, the first group in the central part is divided into 12 bands by 16 pixel values and the second group in the side parts may be divided into 16 bands by 4 pixel values.