Patent ID: 6996175

Claim:
A recursive motion vector estimation method, comprising the steps of: a) for a current block of a picture divided into a plurality of blocks, and based on motion information generated for the previously-processed block if any and if immediately to the left of said current block, the blocks being processed by said method in a predetermined order, generating (E) a plurality of candidate vectors from stored vectors (PV); b) selecting (E) one of these candidate vectors to generate a selected vector (d 1 ); c) generating (REF) a plurality of test vectors from the selected vector (d 1 ); d) selecting (REF) one of the test vectors to generate an output vector (d 2 ); e) storing (MEM) the output vector (d 2 ); and f) re-executing steps a) through f) for a next-to-be-processed block, if any, as said current block.