Patent Document ID: 6154519
Application ID: 09249967
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An image processing method for estimation of motion in a sequence of noisy images comprising a step for determining a motion vector field from one temporal image to the next on the basis of a block matching algorithm by: acquiring a sequence of three successive temporal images, including an image to be processed (J.sub.t) between a preceding causal image (J.sub.t-1) and a later anti-causal image (J.sub.t+1), determining a reference block (RB.sub.1) in the image to be processed, and a pair of blocks (CB.sub.t-1, CB.sub.t+1) which are located in the causal image and the anti-causal image, respectively, and which best match the reference block (RB.sub.t) in conformity with an intensity similarity criterion, and determining a motion vector relating to the reference block on the basis of the location of the blocks of said pair with respect to the location of the reference block.