Patent ID: 8649438

Claim:
A selective motion vector prediction method applicable to scalable video coding (SVC) system, the SVC system being adapted to receive an image frame and generate from the image frame a first layer of low resolution and a second layer of high resolution, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a first motion vector by performing a first motion vector prediction based on the first layer of the image frame; obtaining a first reference data; obtaining a second motion vector and a motion vector prediction center by performing the first motion vector prediction based on the second layer of the image frame and the first reference data; obtaining a first rate-distortion cost (RD-cost) by performing a rate-distortion evaluation based on the second layer, the first reference data, and the second motion vector, wherein the second motion vector is obtained by performing the first motion vector prediction based on the second layer and the first reference data; determining whether the first motion vector and the motion vector prediction center satisfy a preset condition, wherein the preset condition is satisfied when a difference between the first motion vector and the motion vector prediction center is smaller than a threshold value; in the case the first motion vector and the motion vector prediction center satisfying the preset condition, obtaining a third motion vector by performing a second motion vector prediction based on the second layer, the first motion vector obtained by performing the first motion vector prediction based on the first laver, and the first reference data used for obtaining both of the second motion vector and the third motion vector; obtaining a second rate-distortion cost (RD-cost) by performing the rate-distortion evaluation based on the second layer, the first reference data and the third motion vector after the obtaining the third motion vector; and selecting one of the first motion vector prediction and the second motion vector prediction by using the first RD-cost, which is based on the first motion vector prediction, and the second RD-cost, which is based on the second motion vector prediction, for applying to the SVC system.