Patent ID: 8319887

Claim:
A frame rate conversion apparatus for inputting a video signal, and inserting an interpolation frame into the video signal so as to convert a frame rate of the video signal, the apparatus comprising: a motion vector search unit, configured to search for a plurality of motion vectors between a plurality of frames contained in the video signal; a vector distribution calculation unit, configured to calculate the vector distribution, by setting respective start points of said plurality of motion vectors searched by the motion vector search unit as an origin point of a search range of the motion vectors, and by calculating a number of motion vectors whose end points are the pixels in the search range of the motion vectors; a video interpolation unit, configured to generate the interpolation frame; and a control unit, configured to control switching between methods of the generation process of the interpolation frame by the video interpolation unit; wherein the control unit makes comparison between a threshold value and a rate of the number of motion vectors whose end points are the pixels in the search range of the motion vectors calculated by the vector distribution calculation unit against a number of motion vectors whose end points are pixels in a range with a predetermined width outside of the search range of the motion vectors; wherein when the rate is equal to or lower than the threshold value, the control unit controls the video interpolation unit to use a method of the generation process of the interpolation frame using the motion vectors searched by the motion vector search unit; and wherein when the rate is higher than the threshold value, the control unit controls the video interpolation unit to use a method of the generation process of the interpolation frame without using the motion vectors search by the motion vector search unit.