Patent ID: 6888890

Claim:
A motion vector searching device which includes a motion vector searching portion supplied with an input picture signal representative of a succession of pictures for dividing each of said pictures of said input picture signal into blocks, and for searching for a motion vector as a searched motion vector for each of the blocks of each of said pictures in a search area of said input picture signal for each of the blocks of each of said pictures, said motion vector searching device comprising: a learning portion for learning tendencies of the searched motion vectors for previous pictures to a current picture of the pictures of said input picture signal to produce tendency information representative of said tendencies; and a determining portion for determining the search area for each of the blocks of said current picture on the basis of said tendency information to cause said motion vector searching portion to search for the motion vector as the searched motion vector for each of the blocks of said current picture in the search area for each of the blocks of said current picture.