Patent ID: 8514937

Claim:
A video encoding apparatus comprising: a current macro block (MB) memory storing and providing previous, current and next MBs of a current frame; a search window one (SW1) memory storing and providing search window (SW) regions of the previous, current and next MBs for coarse motion estimation; a search window two (SW2) memory storing and providing adjacent pixels around the SW regions of the previous and current MBs for fine motion estimation; a coarse motion estimation part (CME) performing coarse motion estimation on the basis of the current MB and the SW region of the current MB; a fine motion estimation and motion compensation part (FMEMC) performing fine motion estimation and motion compensation on the basis of an output of the CME, the previous MB, the SW region of the previous MB, and the adjacent pixels around the SW region of the previous MB; and an intra prediction & reconstruction part performing intra prediction, quantization, inverse quantization/inverse discrete cosine transformation/inverse hadamard, and reconstruction, by using an output of the FMEMC and information stored in the current MB memory and the SW-1 memory wherein the FMEMC includes: a 1-pel motion estimation part (ME) calculating and outputting a 1-pel motion vector and minimum cost on the basis of an output of the CME, an MB read from the current MB memory, an SW region of the MB, and luminance signals of adjacent pixels around the SW region of the MB; a ½-pel Y interpolation part (ITP) generating a ½-pel interpolated luminance signal on the basis of the SW region of the MB and the luminance signals of the adjacent pixels around the SW region of the MB; a ½-pel Y buffer buffering the ½-pel interpolated luminance signal; a ½-pel ME calculating and outputting a ½-pel motion vector and minimum cost on the basis of an output of the 1-pel ME, the MB, and the ½-pel interpolated luminance signal; a ¼-pel ITP generating a ¼-pel interpolated luminance signal on the basis of the SW region of the MB and the ½-pel interpolated luminance signal; a ¼-pel Y buffer buffering the ¼-pel interpolated luminance signal; a ¼-pel ME calculating and outputting a ¼-pel motion vector and minimum cost on the basis of an output of the ½-pel ME, the MB, and the ¼-pel interpolated luminance signal; a ¼-pel UV ITP generating a ¼-pel interpolated color difference signal on the basis of the luminance signals of the adjacent pixels around the SW region of the MB; a ¼-pel UV buffer buffering the ¼-pel interpolated color difference signal; and a motion compensation part performing motion compensation on the basis of an output of the ¼-pel ME, the ¼-pel interpolated luminance signal, and the ¼-pel interpolated color difference signal.