The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 12, 2002
Filed:
Apr. 06, 1999
Michael Bakhmutsky, Spring Valley, NY (US);
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
A method for determining a best match between a first pixel array in a picture currently being encoded and a plurality of second pixel arrays in a search region of a reference picture, wherein each of the first and second pixel arrays includes a plurality of rows and columns of individual pixel values. The method is designed to be performed in a motion estimation search engine of a digital video encoder, and includes the steps of producing a first orthogonal-sum signature of the first pixel array comprised of a set of horizontal sums representative of the sums of the individual pixel values of the rows of the first pixel array and a first set of vertical sums representative of the sums of the individual pixel values of the columns of the first pixel array; producing a plurality of second orthogonal-sum signatures for respective ones of at least selected ones of the plurality of second pixel arrays, each of the plurality of second orthogonal-sum signatures being comprised of a set of horizontal sums representative of the sums of the individual pixel values of the rows of a respective one of the second pixel arrays and a set of vertical sums representative of the sums of the individual pixel values of the columns of a respective one of the second pixel arrays; and, comparing the first orthogonal-sum signature with each of the second orthogonal-sum signatures in order to determine the best match between the first and second pixel arrays. In a disclosed embodiment, the first and second pixel arrays are either decimated or undecimated macroblocks having a structure defined by an MPEG standard, e.g., the MPEG-2 standard.