Dual-prime motion estimation engine
First Claim
1. An apparatus for performing motion estimation, comprising:
- a command memory for storing a motion estimation command list segment, said segment having a search command for specifying a merged search operation over one or more search positions, wherein a merged search operation allows the score of a current search position to be accumulated with the score of one or more previous search positions;
a score memory for storing results of the merged search operation, said score memory being initialized when the merged search operation is initiated, said score memory accumulating a result for each search position during a subsequent merged search operation; and
a search engine coupled to the command memory and to the score memory, said search engine determining from the score memory a search position with the lowest score.
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Abstract
An apparatus performs motion estimation based on an average of previous field references in a flexible, yet high performance manner. The apparatus has a command memory for storing a motion estimation command list segment which in turn contains a search command for specifying a merged search operation over one or more search positions. The apparatus also has a score memory for storing the result of each merged search operation. The score memory is initialized when the merged search operation is initiated. During the search operation, the score memory accumulates the result of each search position. The apparatus also has a search engine connected to the command memory and to the score memory for determining from the score memory a search position with the lowest score. The search engine then generates dual prime motion estimation outputs in the form of motion estimation result list segments.
63 Citations
30 Claims
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1. An apparatus for performing motion estimation, comprising:
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a command memory for storing a motion estimation command list segment, said segment having a search command for specifying a merged search operation over one or more search positions, wherein a merged search operation allows the score of a current search position to be accumulated with the score of one or more previous search positions;
a score memory for storing results of the merged search operation, said score memory being initialized when the merged search operation is initiated, said score memory accumulating a result for each search position during a subsequent merged search operation; and
a search engine coupled to the command memory and to the score memory, said search engine determining from the score memory a search position with the lowest score. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
a merged search operation on fields spaced three temporal units apart at the predetermined pel grid resolution with a second scaled common input velocity estimate and the predetermined search range.
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12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the predetermined pel grid resolution is a ½
- pel grid resolution.
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13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first scaled common input velocity estimate is ½
- of the common input velocity estimate.
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14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the second scaled common input velocity estimate is 3/2 of the common input velocity estimate.
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15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the predetermined search range is one.
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16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the search engine compensates for differing search grid resolutions between same and opposite parity motion vector searches.
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17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein temporally adjacent fields are compensated by duplicating a search result to four score memory positions.
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18. A method for performing motion estimation based on a reference image and a target image, each image having one or more search positions, the method comprising:
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initializing a score memory when a merged search operation is initiated, wherein the merged search operation allows the score of a current search position to be accumulated with the score of one or more previous search positions; and
repetitively accumulating the result for each search position into the score memory for each merged search. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An apparatus for performing motion estimation based on a reference image and a target image, comprising:
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a command memory for storing a motion estimation command list segment, said segment having a search command for specifying a merged search operation over one or more search positions, wherein a merged search operation allows the score of a current search position to be accumulated with the score of one or more previous search positions;
a score memory for storing results of the merged search operation, said score memory being initialized when the merged search operation is initiated, said score memory accumulating a result for each search position during a subsequent merged search operation; and
a search engine coupled to the command memory and to the score memory, said search engine determining from the score memory a search position with the lowest score and producing a motion estimation result list, the search engine having;
a reference window memory system containing one or more reference data segments;
a target memory system containing one or more target data segments; and
a data path engine coupled to the reference window memory system and the target memory system, the data path engine generating a measure of differences between data in the reference window memory system and data stored in the target memory system; and
a result memory system coupled to the motion estimation search engine, said result memory system storing one or more result list segments. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification