Patent ID: 7764738

Claim:
An adaptive motion estimation and mode decision apparatus for an H.264 video codec, comprising: a background image detection unit for inspecting whether a macroblock corresponding to a fixed background or slowly and regularly moving image exists, and skipping the step of dividing a corresponding macroblock into smaller sized blocks and performing block mode inspection; an inter mode inspection unit for inspecting whether an irregularly or fast moving macroblock exists by performing All Zero Coefficients Block (AZCB) inspection for an inter mode on macroblocks other than the macroblock detected by the background image detection unit, and determining whether to divide a corresponding macroblock into smaller sized blocks and to perform block mode inspection on the smaller sized blocks, wherein the inter mode inspection unit performs motion vector search, Rate-Distortion cost (RDcost), and AZCB inspection for a P16×16 mode of the macroblock, performs motion vector search, RDcost, and AZCB inspection for a P8×8 mode of the macroblock if it is determined that inspection will be required on smaller blocks for the P16×16 mode, and performs the motion vector search and RDcost inspection for a P4×4 mode only if it is determined that inspection will be required on the smaller blocks for the P8×8 mode; an intra mode inspection unit for performing AZCB inspection for an intra mode on the macroblocks and determining whether to divide a corresponding macroblock into smaller sized blocks block and to perform mode inspection on the smaller sized blocks; and a mode inspection skip unit for skipping the block mode inspection for the smaller sized blocks of the macroblock if it is determined that the block mode inspection for the smaller sized blocks of the macroblock will be skipped by the background image detection unit, the inter mode inspection unit, and the intra mode inspection unit.