Patent ID: 7173971

Claim:
A system for avoiding an identified artifact from a predicted video block, the system comprising: a) an input for a source block having an array of source pixels and for the predicted block corresponding to the source block; b) a type processor for characterizing the source block as a predefined flat type by defining a grouping of the source pixels as having an average image characteristic; c) an artifact detector for locating a grouping of predicted pixels in the predicted block that indicate a presence of the artifact, when the predicted block corresponds to the source block having the predefined flat type; and d) an artifact avoidance processor for minimizing the presence of the identified artifact from a compensated reconstructed block corresponding to the predicted block; wherein the identified artifact is absent from or visually less apparent in the compensated reconstructed block; wherein the average image characteristic shared between the source pixels is selected from the group comprising luminance values and chrominance values; and wherein the pixels in the source pixel grouping are considered to have the average image characteristic by comparing each pixel image value with an average group image value for the whole source pixel grouping, such that all of the absolute values of the differences between the pixel image values and the average group image value are less than a predefined image characteristic threshold.