Patent ID: 6968009

Claim:
A method of finding motion vectors for use in MPEG video encoding, the method comprising: generating from a full frame, (i) a first scaled frame having a reduced number of pixels as compared to the full frame and (ii) a second scaled frame having a reduced number of pixels as compared to the first scaled frame; defining a size of a macroblock in the full frame; performing a first, full, best match search of the second scaled frame to identify rough motion vectors, the first search using reference blocks consisting of four scaled macroblocks of the second scaled frame; performing a second best match search using the rough motion vectors identified by the first search, within a limited range in the X and Y directions for each scaled macroblock of the first scaled frame to identify intermediate motion vectors; and performing a third best match search using the intermediate motion vectors identified by the second search, within a limited range in the X and Y directions for each macroblock of the full frame to identify final motion vectors.