Method and system for motion estimation in a video encoder
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsBo Zhang, Stephen Gordon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein is a method and system for motion estimation in a video encoder. There are two parts to the motion estimation. Coarse motion estimation generates a set of motion vectors for a current picture and at least one reference picture. Typically, coarse motion estimation operates on sub-sampled pictures. Fine motion estimation can refine coarse motion estimation results by searching interpolated video data in a region defined by the motion vectors from the coarse motion estimation.
Claims12
A method for motion estimation in a video encoder, said method comprising:
- correlating a sub-sampled current picture with a sub-sampled reference picture, thereby producing a set of motion vectors;
- selecting one or more candidate motion vectors from the set of motion vectors;
- and
- correlating a portion of a current picture with a region of a reference picture, wherein the region of a reference picture corresponds to the one or more candidate motion vectors.
A system for motion estimation in a video encoder, said method comprising:
- a coarse motion estimator for generating a search region within a reference picture;
- and
- a fine motion estimator for correlating a portion of a current picture with the search region.
An integrated circuit for video encoding, said integrated circuit comprising:
- a memory for storing a current picture and a reference picture, wherein the current picture comprises a macroblock partition;
- and
- a circuit operable for:
- decimating the current picture, thereby producing a sub-sampled current picture;
- determining a search region in the reference picture based on the sub-sampled current picture;
- and
- correlating the macroblock partition with the search region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.