Patent ID: 7953151

Claim:
A motion vector detecting apparatus for detecting a motion vector between sequentially input picture signals, a currently input picture signal being divided into blocks prior to encoding, the blocks having variable block size ranging from a first block size to an nth block size (n is an integral number equal to or more than 2) without selectively extracting pixel data from the input picture signals where the first block size is a smallest block size and the blocks having block sizes from the second block size to the nth block size include the block having the first block size, comprising: a first motion vector detecting means for detecting a motion vector for each of the blocks in the currently input picture signal divided into blocks having the first block size; a feature value detecting means for detecting a feature value between adjacent blocks inside the currently input picture on the basis of the motion vectors detected by the first motion vector detecting means, wherein the feature value is a vector distance between the motion vectors detected by the first motion vector detecting means or a dispersion thereof; and a second motion vector detecting means for determining respectively whether or not a motion search should be executed by each unit of the block sizes ranging from the second block size to the nth block size on the basis of the feature value detected by the feature value detecting means, selecting a block size from the second block size to the nth block size according to the result of the determining and detecting a motion vector for each of the blocks in the currently input picture signal having the selected block size.