Patent ID: 8130835

Claim:
A motion vector generation method for generating a second-resolution-frame motion vector in a second resolution frame having a second resolution from a first-resolution-frame motion vector in a first resolution frame having a first resolution, the second resolution being higher than the first resolution, the method comprising: (a) determining a local-search reference point in the second resolution frame based on the first-resolution-frame motion vector; and (b) generating the second-resolution-frame motion vector by performing a local-search process on the second resolution frame based on the local-search reference point, wherein generating the second-resolution-frame motion vector comprises; calculating lower matching reference values based on differences between lower estimation blocks of a past frame having the second resolution and lower estimation blocks of a current frame having the second resolution; calculating upper matching reference values by selectively summing the lower matching reference values; and determining the second-resolution-frame motion vector based the upper matching reference values, wherein the lower estimation blocks of the current frame comprise pixel values of some portions of a current estimation block and the lower estimation blocks of the past frame comprises pixel values of some portions of a past estimation block, the current estimation block comprises an estimation block of the current frame, and the past estimation block comprises an estimation block of the past frame.