Patent Document ID: 6020925
Application ID: 08858718
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for use in a motion-compensated video signal encoder, for determining a predicted current frame based on a current frame and a previous frame of a digital video signal, comprising: means for selecting a number of feature point pixels from the previous frame, wherein each of the feature point pixels represents a pixel contained in the previous frame, the feature point pixels being capable of representing the motion of an object in the digital video signal; means for detecting a first set of motion vectors for the feature point pixels contained in the previous frame on a pixel-by-pixel basis by using the current frame, wherein each of the first set of motion vectors is a spatial displacement between a corresponding feature point pixel in the previous frame and a most similar pixel contained in the current frame to the corresponding feature point pixel frame; means for producing a second set of motion vectors for all of pixels contained in the current frame by using said first set of motion vectors, wherein said producing means includes: first means for determining, by using the first set of motion vectors, a third set of motion vectors for quasi-feature point pixels contained in the current frame, wherein the quasi-feature point pixels represent a number of pixels of the current frame shifted from the feature point pixels of the previous frame by the first set of motion vectors; and second means for determining a fourth set of motion vectors for remaining pixels of the current frame by using the third set of motion vectors to produce the third and the fourth set of motion vectors as the second set of motion vectors, wherein each of the fourth set of motion vectors is determined by averaging motion vectors of quasi-feature point pixels contained in a predetermined range about a corresponding remaining pixel; and means for assigning the value of each of the pixels in the previous frame, which corresponds to one of the pixels in the current frame through one of the second set of motion vectors, as the value of said one of the pixels in the current frame, to thereby determine the predicted current frame.