Apparatus and method for motion vector filtering based on local image segmentation and lattice maps

An apparatus for filtering a motion vector field provided by a motion estimation apparatus, comprising:

• a low pass filter and down-sampler to provide a local segmentation image from the input image;
• a first shape adaptive window generator to provide an image bitmap from the local segmentation image;
• a map combiner to provide an image segment pixel count and an image/motion segment pixel count using the image bitmap and the lattice map;
• a second shape adaptive window generator to provide a motion vector based bitmap;
• an outlier detector to provide a binary map;
• a local mean calculator to provide a mean value to replace a motion vector;
• and
• a deciding stage to determine whether or not to replace a motion vector with a mean value using the binary map.

A motion estimation apparatus comprising:

• an image delay apparatus to provide a delayed image from an input image;
• a lattice detector to find lattice structures in the input image and the delayed image and provide a lattice map;
• a histogram generator and a histogram analyzer to provide a set of horizontal and vertical search masks;
• a motion vector estimator to provide a motion vector field based on the input image, the delayed image, the lattice structures and a masked motion vector field based in the horizontal and vertical search masks;
• and
• a motion vector filter further comprising:
• a low pass filter and down-sampler to provide a local segmentation image from the input image;
• a first shape adaptive window generator to provide an image bitmap from the local segmentation image;
• a map combiner to provide an image segment pixel count and a motion/image segment pixel count using the image bitmap and the lattice map;
• a second shape adaptive window generator to provide a motion vector based bitmap;
• an outlier detector to provide a binary map;
• a local mean calculator to provide a mean value to replace a motion vector;
• and
• a deciding stage to determine whether or not to replace a motion vector with a mean value using the binary map.