Picture processing apparatus and picture processing method

A picture processing apparatus for producing an interpolation frame of a picture signal, comprising:

• a motion vector detecting unit for detecting a motion vector of a picture;
• a character detecting unit for detecting a character contained in the picture and for calculating a frame rate based upon said detected character;
• and
• an interpolation frame producing unit for producing an interpolation frame based upon the motion vector of the picture detected by said motion vector detecting unit and the character detected by said character detecting unit;
• wherein said character detecting unit calculates a movement feature amount of said detected character from the motion vector of the picture detected by said motion vector detecting unit, and calculates the frame rate in such a manner that a frame rate of a picture, in which the movement feature amount of said character exceeds a predetermined threshold value, becomes lower than a frame rate of a picture in which the movement feature amount of the character is smaller than, or equal to said predetermined threshold value.

A picture processing method for producing an interpolation frame of a picture signal, comprising:

• a motion vector detecting step for detecting a motion vector of a picture;
• a frame rate calculating step for calculating a frame rate based upon said detected motion vector;
• and
• an interpolation frame producing step for producing an interpolation frame based upon said calculated frame rate;
• wherein in said frame rate calculating step, a movement feature amount of a picture is calculated from the motion vector detected in said motion vector detecting step;
• and the frame rate is calculated in such a manner that a frame rate of a picture, the movement feature amount of which exceeds a predetermined threshold value, becomes lower than a frame rate of a picture, the movement feature amount of which is smaller than, or equal to said predetermined threshold value.