Patent ID: 8693544

Claim:
A motion estimation apparatus comprising: a block dividing unit dividing an original block which is set in a first image frame among a plurality of successive image frames and candidate blocks, which correspond to the original block and are sequentially determined according to a predetermined search direction in a search range which is set in a second image frame intended to estimate a motion between the first image frame and the second image frame, into a plurality of operation units comprising the same number of pixels, respectively; a matching error calculating unit calculating a partial matching error which is a Sum of Absolute Difference (SAD) of a pixel value with respect to each pixel which configures the operation unit of the same position in the original block for respective operation units of the candidate blocks; a matching error comparing unit replacing an optimal candidate block with a selected candidate block, when a total sum of partial matching errors calculated on all operation units of the selected candidate block which is sequentially selected from among the candidate blocks is less than a minimum matching error being the total sum of partial matching errors calculated on all operation units of the optimal candidate block, and a maximum value of the partial matching errors calculated on all the operation units of the selected candidate block is less than a maximum matching error being a maximum value of the partial matching errors calculated on all the operation units of the optimal candidate block; and a matching block determining unit determining the optimal candidate block as a matching block for estimating a motion vector from the original block, when partial matching errors are sequentially calculated on all the candidate blocks, wherein a candidate block which is initially set as the optimal candidate block is a candidate block which is selected from among the candidate blocks for the first time.