Patent ID: 8254459

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program that when executed by at least one processor performs motion estimation for an image array obtained from a current image in a sequence of video images, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for: performing a first motion estimation process that searches for the image array in a reference image in the sequence of images (i) to identify a first motion vector that provides a first estimate of a motion of the image array between the current image and the reference image, and (ii) to obtain a first error estimate for the first estimate of the motion of the image array; when the first error estimate is greater than a threshold value, performing a second different motion estimation process that searches for the image array in the reference image (i) to identify a second motion vector that provides a second estimate of the motion of the image array between the current image and the reference image, and (ii) to obtain a second error estimate for the second estimate of the motion of the image array; when the second error estimate is greater than the threshold value, performing a third motion estimation process to obtain a third estimate of the motion of the image array between the current image and the reference image; and encoding said current image based the motion of the image array.