Patent ID: 8619859

Claim:
A motion estimation apparatus comprising: a first motion estimation unit, implemented by at least one processing device, to perform a first motion estimation on a current block using an initial motion vector in an initial block mode and to determine a block mode of the current block based on a result of the first motion estimation; and a second motion estimation unit to determine at least one candidate block mode including the initial block mode among a plurality of block modes according to motion characteristics of pixels included in the current block and to perform a second motion estimation on the current block in either the initial block mode or the at least one candidate block mode so as to determine a motion vector of the current block, wherein the second motion estimation unit comprises: a candidate block mode determination unit to determine the at least one candidate block mode of the current block according to a result of comparing a respective plurality of motion vectors of a plurality of sub-blocks forming the current block with each other; and a block mode skip determination unit to determine whether to skip remaining block modes excluding the initial block mode from the at least one candidate block mode of the current block after determining the at least one candidate block mode of the current block.