Hierarchical motion estimation apparatus and method

A motion estimation apparatus comprising:

• a pixel data storing unit including a search target macro-block data storing unit storing pixel data of a macro-block in a current frame, and a search area macro-block data storing unit storing pixel data of macro-blocks in a search area of a frame to be searched;
• a two-dimensional processing element array receiving pixel data from the pixel data storing unit and calculating a degree of similarity between the macro-block in the current frame and macro-blocks in the search area;
• a merging and comparing unit merging the degree of similarity, generating degrees of similarity values corresponding to various block sizes, comparing the generated degrees of similarity, and outputting motion vectors for the blocks of various sizes;
• and
• an address controlling unit determining an address to read in order to retrieve pixel data needed to calculate the degree of similarity from the pixel data storing unit and outputting the address is input to the two-dimensional processing element array.

A method of reducing wasted clock cycles in hierarchal motion estimation, comprising:

• storing in a storage section pixel data of a block to be searched for and pixel data of blocks in a search area;
• receiving pixel data from the pixel data storing unit and calculating, via a two-dimensional processor, degrees of similarity between the block to be searched for and the blocks in the search area;
• merging the degrees of similarity, generating degrees of similarity for blocks of various sizes, comparing the generated degrees of similarity, and outputting motion vectors for the blocks of various sizes;
• and
• sequentially transmitting the pixel data to the two-dimensional processing element array by controlling a address of the storage section.