Decoder for a frame or field skipped tv signal with a representative

Abstract

In order to interpolate each instantaneous picture skipped between a preceding and a succeeding picture in a moving picture signal comprising a movement vector signal, a decoder comprises a movement region detector responsive to the moving picture signal for detecting a movement region for a moving or movable body in each of the preceding and the succeeding pictures, a vector selector for selecting a representative movement vector for each movement region from individual movement vectors reproduced from the movement vector signal, and an interpolator responsive to the movement region and the representative movement vector for interpolating the skipped picture between the preceding and the succeeding pictures. Preferably, the decoder is a predictive decoder for a moving picture signal of the above-mentioned type and including a prediction error signal for the movement vector signal. The vector selector selects the representative movement vector in consideration of that significance of each reproduced movement vector which is evaluated by the prediction errors represented by the prediction error signal. In either event, the representative movement vector may be the individual movement vector which is most frequent in each movement region. Alternatively, the representative movement vector may be an average of the individual movement vectors in each movement region.