Patent ID: 7590288

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an edge detector circuit configured to determine a plurality of default directions of a macroblock in response to a plurality of input signals comprising information about a plurality of samples in said macroblock; an edge strength detector circuit configured to generate a maximum strength signal and a next maximum strength signal in response to said default directions; and an edge strength threshold circuit configured to generate an edge direction signal and an edge strength signal in response to said maximum strength signal and said next maximum strength signal, wherein said edge direction signal comprises (i) any one of said plurality of default directions when in a first state and (ii) any one of a plurality of intermediate directions when in a second state, wherein said edge strength threshold circuit is configured to (i) determine whether said default direction with the largest maximum strength is an immediate neighboring direction to said default direction with the next largest maximum strength and (ii) report any one of said intermediate directions on said edge direction signal as the edge direction of a block if the difference between said default direction with the largest maximum strength and the and the default direction with the next largest maximum strength is less than an edge neighbor threshold signal.