Motion vector detector and motion vector detecting method
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsKazuhiko Nishibori, Koji Aoyama, Makoto Kondo, Takaya Hoshino, Yukihiko Mogi
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Abstract
A vector motion detector is provided which corrects the quantity of a motion vector determined with the block matching technique between a reference block taking a reference pixel extracted from a current frame as its origin and a search block extracted from a reference frame and moving within or along the circumference of a search range and which is outside the search range. The vector motion detector makes the motion vector quantity correction so that the motion vector will fall within the search rang. Thus, it can provide a smooth motion of even an image that moves fast.
Claims20
A motion vector detector for detecting a motion vector of a reference pixel in a current input frame with the block matching technique, the detector comprising:
- a vector calculating means for sequentially calculating a sum of absolute values of differences in pixel between a reference block taking as its origin a reference pixel extracted from a current frame and a search block moving within or along the circumference of a search range extracted from a reference frame, which is one frame after the current frame, to determine the vector of a motion between a pixel position within the search block in which the difference absolute-value sum is smallest and the position of the reference pixel;
- and
- a vector correcting means for correcting the quantity of the motion vector determined by the vector calculating means so that the vector quantity falls within the search range in case that the pixel position for the smallest difference absolute-value sum exists outside the search range.
A motion vector detecting method of detecting a motion vector of a reference pixel in a current input frame with the block matching technique, the method comprising steps of:
- sequentially calculating a sum of absolute values of differences in pixel between a reference block taking as its origin a reference pixel extracted from a current frame and a search block moving within or along the circumference of a search range extracted from a reference frame, which is one frame after the current frame, to determine the vector of a motion between a pixel position within the search block in which the difference absolute-value sum is smallest and the position of the reference pixel;
- and
- correcting the quantity of the motion vector determined in the difference absolute-value sum calculating step so that the vector quantity falls within the search range in case that the pixel position for the smallest difference absolute-value sum exists outside the search range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.