Patent ID: 8144777

Claim:
A method of detecting an optimum motion vector between a m-th frame and an (m+n)-th frame, m being an integer, n being an integer not less than i+1 and i being an integer not less than 1, the method comprising: extracting a first block from a motion vector search area of the m-th frame; extracting, from a motion vector search area of an (m+n)-th frame, a plurality of second blocks, each second block having a sum of an absolute value difference between each pixel value included in the second block and a corresponding pixel value included in the first block that is below a predetermined threshold, the plurality of second blocks selected in an order of increasing sum of the absolute value difference between each pixel value included in the second block and the corresponding pixel value included in the first block; detecting a plurality of first motion vector candidates, each of the plurality of first motion vector candidates being between the first block and a respective second block of the plurality of second blocks; computing a plurality of second motion vectors, each of which being i/n times a respective one of the plurality of first motion vector candidates; extracting, from an (m+i)-th frame, a plurality of third blocks located at a destination of the first block according to each of the second motion vectors; extracting, from the (m+n)-th frame a plurality of fourth blocks corresponding to the positions of the third blocks in the (m+i)-th frame; and selecting, from among the plurality of first motion vector candidates, the optimum motion vector based on differences between the first block and the plurality of second blocks weighted by a first weighting factor and differences between the plurality of third blocks and the plurality of fourth blocks weighted by a second weighting factor.