Patent ID: 6934332

Claim:
A method of determining a first motion vector and a second motion vector for a first macroblock and a second macroblock, respectively, of a present image from a previous image, the method comprising: selecting a predetermined pattern of pixels in the previous image; computing a first-macroblock difference measure for each of a first plurality of pixel blocks in the previous image to form a plurality of first-macroblock difference measures for the first macroblock using the predetermined pattern of pixels; selecting a first origin block from the first plurality of pixel blocks having a lowest first-macroblock difference measure; computing the first motion vector using the first origin block and the first macroblock; computing a second-macroblock difference measure for each of a second plurality of pixel blocks in the previous image to form a plurality of second-macroblock difference measures for the second macroblock using the predetermined pattern of pixels; selecting a second origin block from the second plurality of pixel blocks having a lowest second-macroblock difference measure; and computing the second motion vector using the second origin block and the second macroblock.