Patent ID: 6674798
Filing Date: 2004-01-06
Classification: G06T,H04N

Abstract:
A motion vector detecting device, for obtaining motion vectors employed for a motion compensated predictive coding through a block matching process of picture images of a current screen and a reference screen, said motion vector detecting device comprising:evaluation means for obtaining evaluation function values indicating similarity levels of a current picture image block of a prescribed size in said current screen and a plurality of reference picture image blocks in a region related to said current picture image block in said reference screen said evaluation function values obtained in parallel in accordance with a plurality of predetermined predictive modes for each respective reference block; and motion vector decision means receiving said evaluation function values for the respective reference blocks and the respective predictive modes from said evaluation means for deciding motion vectors of the respective predictive modes with respect to said current picture image block in a parallel manner, wherein each of said current and reference screens is formed by a single field, each of said current screen and said reference screen including pixels arranged in a two-dimensional array of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction; wherein said plurality of predictive modes includes motion predictive modes employing pixels in an upper half block of said current picture image block divided into half blocks along a vertical direction of said current screen, pixels in a lower half block of said two half blocks of said current picture image block, and all pixels in said current picture image block, respectively.