Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Yoshiro Tsuboi

Masafumi Takahashi

Tsuyoshi Nishikawa

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.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Yoshiro Tsuboi