Patent ID: 8390697

Claim:
An image processing apparatus comprising: a global motion estimation apparatus that performs global Motion Estimation (ME) on a current image and a reference image and then outputs a Motion Vector (MV), wherein the global motion estimation apparatus includes a motion estimation processing unit that has a function of executing a Lucas-Kanade method (hereinafter, referred to as an LK method) two or more times across a whole screen in order to perform the global motion estimation between the current image and the reference image; and the motion estimation processing unit obtains a set of motion vectors based on at least information about pixel value variation in a horizontal direction, pixel value variation in a vertical direction and pixel value variation in a time direction of a pixel, and information in which a calculation result of an arbitrary calculation expression which includes the pixel value variation in the horizontal direction, the pixel value variation in the vertical direction and the pixel value variation in the time direction is added across a whole screen in first motion estimation, and determines whether to perform addition on each pixel according to a set condition when obtaining the at least information about the pixel value variation in the horizontal direction, the pixel value variation in the vertical direction and the pixel value variation in the time direction of the pixel, and information in which the calculation result of an arbitrary expression which includes the pixel value variation in the horizontal direction, the pixel value variation in the vertical direction and the pixel value variation in the time direction, which are necessary to obtain the motion vector using the LK method, is added across the whole screen, and obtains and outputs a new set of motion vectors as a result of a second LK method when the condition is satisfied in second motion estimation.