Patent ID: 8494052

Claim:
A method comprising, during encoding: performing first motion estimation constrained by a first search range for a first predicted picture, resulting in plural motion vectors for the first predicted picture; signaling, in a bit stream, a first motion vector range corresponding to the first search range, wherein the first motion vector range indicates motion vector sizes permitted, according to bit stream syntax of the bit stream, in the first motion vector range; outputting, in the bit stream, results of the first motion estimation; computing motion vector distribution information for the plural motion vectors for the first predicted picture, wherein the motion vector distribution information is organized as plural intervals of a histogram calculated based at least in part on the first motion vector range signaled in the bit stream; based at least in part upon the motion vector distribution information for the plural motion vectors for the first predicted picture, selecting a second search range for a second predicted picture, the selecting the second search range comprising comparing a threshold to a count of motion vectors within at least one interval of the plural intervals of the histogram; performing second motion estimation constrained by the second search range for the second predicted picture that is different than the first predicted picture; signaling, in the bit stream, a second motion vector range corresponding to the second search range, wherein the second motion vector range indicates motion vector sizes permitted, according to the bit stream syntax of the bit stream, in the second motion vector range; and outputting, in the bit stream, results of the second motion estimation; whereby the signaling of the first motion vector range and the second motion vector range improves efficiency of entropy encoding of motion vector information from the first motion estimation and the second motion estimation.