Patent US 6,088,061

A video coding device capable of making coded data have a hierarchical structure, a specified area of each frame is selected. The position and the shape of the selected area are encoded, a pixel value of the selected area is encoded as slower-layer coded data, a pixel value of a whole image is encoded as first upper-layer coded data by using pixel values of already decoded images of the lower-layer and the first upper layer and a pixel value of the selected area is encoded as second upper-layer coded data by using pixel values of already decoded images of the lower-layer and the second upper layer.