1. An image region segment extraction method comprising extracting an image segment from a video image, the step of extracting comprising the steps of: calculating motion data for a video image based on two sequential frames of video images obtained by a video camera; using said sequential video images to estimate the camera operations required of said video camera; referring to said camera operations performed under predetermined conditions to estimate the location of the center of a target area in a video image that has been obtained; designating image features in the vicinity of said center position of said target area; designating an image segment in which said image features are included, extracting said target area being one of: an area aimed at by a cameraman and an essential portion of the video image, and either enlarging an image sequence of said target area, or increasing a resolution only of the target area while performing high compression scalable coding for other portions of said video image.