US 5,493,344 A · Motion vector estimation method and apparatus having half-pixel accuracy

Abstract

A system estimating the movement of video signals to half-pixel accuracy includes a first motion detector receiving the present video block data and data for a corresponding search area for detecting a first motion vector signal due to the differences in data between the present video block and respective previous video blocks in the search area and generates error signals for respective vertical, horizontal and diagonal directions due to the video data differences between the blocks, a vector component detector receiving the error signals from the first motion detector for generating component detection signals representing respective vertical and horizontal components of a second motion vector having half-pixel accuracy with respect to the vertical, horizontal and diagonal directions, and a second motion detector for detecting a second motion vector signal in response to respective component detection signals generated by the vector component detector. A motion vector generator receives the first and the second motion vector signals and vector-sums the received signals to output the vector-summed result as a final motion vector. A corresponding motion estimation method is also described.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A motion vector estimation apparatus for estimating movement in a video signal using a search area composed of a present video block and a plurality of video blocks, each of which is identical in size to that of the present video block, said motion vector estimation apparatus comprising:

first motion detector means in which data in the present video block and data in the search area is received, for detecting a first motion vector signal due to data differences between respective video blocks, for detecting and comparing data for a respective previous video block corresponding to the detected first motion vector signal and data of a plurality of peripheral video blocks obtained by shifting the previous video block corresponding to said first motion vector by one pixel in the vertical, the horizontal, and the two diagonal directions, respectively, with the data of the present video block, thereby generating respective error signals due to the video data differences between respective present video and peripheral video blocks;
vector component detection means for generating component signals representing whether there is a vertical component and a horizontal component of a second motion vector having half-pixel accuracy with respect to the vertical, the horizontal and the two diagonal directions in response to the error signals supplied from the first motion detector means;
second motion detector means for detecting the second motion vector in response to respective component detection signals supplied from the vector component detection means;
and
motion vector generating means for vector-summing the first and the second motion vector signals and generating a vector-summed signal.

2 more elements

A motion vector estimation method for estimating movement of a video signal using a search area composed of a present video block and video blocks each of which is identical in size to the present video block, said motion vector estimation method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving data in the present video block and data in the search area and then detecting a first motion vector due to a data difference between respective video blocks;
(b) determining the previous video block corresponding to the detected first motion vector, shifting the previous video block by one pixel in vertical, horizontal and diagonal directions, respectively, thereby forming peripheral video blocks;
(c) comparing the respective data of the previous video block and the peripheral video blocks with the data of the present video block and generating error signals due to the video data difference between respective blocks in correspondence to the respective block comparison;
(d) checking whether there is a vertical component and a horizontal component of a second motion vector having half-pixel accuracy with respect to the vertical, the horizontal and the diagonal directions in response to the error signals;
(e) generating the second motion vector according to the result of said checking step;
and
(f) vector-summing the first and second motion vectors to thereby generate a final motion vector.

4 more elements

A motion vector estimation method for estimating movement of a video signal using a present video block representing a predetermined search area with respect to a plurality of previous video blocks extracted from a previous adjacent video frame, each of said previous video blocks being identical in size with the present video block, said motion vector estimation method comprising the steps of:

(a) detecting a first motion vector due to differences in data between said present video block and said previous video blocks in response to receipt of data corresponding to said present video block and said previous video blocks in said search area;
(b) generating a plurality of peripheral video blocks by shifting an associated one of said previous video blocks upon which said first motion vector is based by one pixel in each of the vertical, the horizontal and two diagonal directions, respectively;
(c) comparing each of said peripheral video blocks with said present video block to identify respective vertical and horizontal components to thereby generate a second motion vector having half-pixel accuracy;
(d) vector-summing the first and the second motion vectors.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Motion vector estimation method and apparatus having half-pixel accuracy

Life of this patent

Motion vector estimation method and apparatus having half-pixel accuracy

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13