Motion vector detecting device

Abstract

A motion vector detecting unit 24 detects a motion vector between an input image and a reference image. A reduced image creation unit 40 reads out pixel data of the reference image from the frame memory, and creates a reduced image at a lower resolution than that of the original reference image. A reduced image holding unit 42 stores a part or all of the reduced image thus created. A computation unit 44 performs matching computation between the input image and the reference image using the reduced images, thereby detecting an approximate motion vector. Subsequently, the computation unit 44 detects a motion vector using the images at the original resolution with reference to the approximate motion vector. When the computation unit 44 detects the motion vector using the reduced images, a part of the reduced image stored in the reduced image holding unit 42 is not newly created, and is read out from the reduced image holding unit 42.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.