System and method for estimating motion vector in macro block
First Claim
1. A system for estimating a motion vector for a macro block, which designates an image in a predetermined range of a frame/field in an image data as a macro block to select proposed motion vectors in the macro block, calculates a signal-strength difference between picture elements corresponding to the proposed motion vectors of a current image and a reference image, accumulates the signal-strength differences calculated for the picture elements in the macro block to derive an accumulation result, and selects a proposed motion vector providing an accumulation result of a maximum or minimum value from the proposed motion vectors in a specific range of the macro block as a motion vector, said system comprising:
- accumulating means comprising a plurality of accumulating circuits, connected as a pipeline, for inputting a current image data and a reference image data in parallel for the proposed motion vectors and for parallel-processing accumulation for a plurality of motion vectors;
accumulation stopping means for separately stopping an accumulation processing operation of the accumulating means for each of the accumulating circuits; and
control means for controlling the supply of the current image data and the reference image data for the proposed motion vectors for each of the accumulating circuits of the accumulating means, and for outputting a separate stop signal for stopping a separate accumulation for each of the accumulating circuits to control the stop of the accumulation processing of the accumulation circuit.
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Abstract
A motion vector estimating system prepares a predetermined range of a frame/field of image data as a macro block, selects a plurality of proposed motion vectors in the reference region, calculates a signal-strength difference between pixels corresponding to each of the proposed motion vectors of current and reference images. The system comprises: an accumulating element for deriving an accumulation result in parallel on the basis of the signal-strength difference by means of accumulating circuits connected in parallel as a pipeline; an accumulation stopping element having separate stop circuits for separately stopping the accumulation of the accumulating element every n accumulating circuits; and a control element for controlling the supply of the current image data and the reference image data for proposed motion vectors for each of the accumulating circuits, and for outputting a separate stop signal to the accumulation stopping element for stopping the accumulation for the proposed motion vector of the accumulating circuits immediately after the accumulated value of the absolute values of the differences between the signal values of picture elements of the current image and the reference image exceeds a predetermined value. Thus, it is possible to suitably omit unnecessary accumulation in a pipeline processing for estimating a motion vector, so that it is possible to increase the processing speed and to decrease the electric power consumption.
34 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A system for estimating a motion vector for a macro block, which designates an image in a predetermined range of a frame/field in an image data as a macro block to select proposed motion vectors in the macro block, calculates a signal-strength difference between picture elements corresponding to the proposed motion vectors of a current image and a reference image, accumulates the signal-strength differences calculated for the picture elements in the macro block to derive an accumulation result, and selects a proposed motion vector providing an accumulation result of a maximum or minimum value from the proposed motion vectors in a specific range of the macro block as a motion vector, said system comprising:
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accumulating means comprising a plurality of accumulating circuits, connected as a pipeline, for inputting a current image data and a reference image data in parallel for the proposed motion vectors and for parallel-processing accumulation for a plurality of motion vectors; accumulation stopping means for separately stopping an accumulation processing operation of the accumulating means for each of the accumulating circuits; and control means for controlling the supply of the current image data and the reference image data for the proposed motion vectors for each of the accumulating circuits of the accumulating means, and for outputting a separate stop signal for stopping a separate accumulation for each of the accumulating circuits to control the stop of the accumulation processing of the accumulation circuit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method for estimating a motion vector for a macro block in a reference region, said method comprising the steps of:
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designating an image in a predetermined range of a frame/field as a macro block, and selecting a plurality of proposed motion vectors existing in the reference region; calculating, in parallel, signal-strength differences between corresponding picture elements of a current image and a reference image for a predetermined parallel number of proposed motion vectors of said plurality of proposed motion vectors in said macro block designated, and accumulating said signal-strength differences for each of specific proposed motion vectors processed in parallel; and stopping the accumulation for the proposed motion vectors when the accumulation result of the minimum or maximum value is identified for any one of the parallel number of proposed motion vectors processed in parallel. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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Specification