Motion vector estimation apparatus

• Main Authors: JURI TATSURO, TASAKA KEI, ARIMURA KOJI, ARAKAWA HIROSHI, OHGOSE HIDEYUKI, SAIGO KATSUO, MARUYAMA YUUKI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.05.2013
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY; CODE CONVERSION IN GENERAL; CODING; DECODING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

The present invention provides a motion vector estimation apparatus which can decrease circuit size by reducing the amount of computations for detecting a motion vector. The motion vector estimation apparatus in the present invention includes a motion vector estimation unit which estimates a motion vector MV0F for the target block BL0 by searching within a reference picture P1 for a block with an image similar to an image in the target block BL0, which is included in a picture B2; a prediction calculation unit and a prediction range control unit which specify a search range in the reference picture P1 based on the motion vector MV0F and; the motion vector estimation unit estimates the motion vector MV1F for the target block BL1 by searching in the search range for a block with an image similar to an image in the target block BL1, which is included in the picture B3.