Motion compensation using minimum bits per motion block as criterion for block matching

Claim 2

In a system for reducing the bandwidth required for transmitting signals representing an image by codifying the difference between a data block in a current frame and a matching block in a previous frame in a certain manner, apparatus for identifying the matching block comprising: means for making available data of a previous frame; means for providing data for a motion block in a current frame; means for deriving the respective differences between the data for the motion block and each of a plurality of like blocks in the previous frame; means for determining the number of bits required for codifying the respective differences in said manner, and means for selecting as a matching block the block in the previous frame resulting in the least number of bits for codification in said manner.

Claim 3

Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein the manner of codification includes means for performing the function of a DCT followed by a quantizer.

Claim 4

Apparatus for identifying a block of data in a previous frame of video information that is to be a predicted data block in a system that codifies differences between data in the predicted block and data in a current data block in a given manner comprising: means for providing data for the previous frame; means for providing data in a motion block of a current frame for which a matching block is to be found in the previous frame; means for deriving the respective differences between data in the motion block and a plurality of like blocks in the previous frame; means for determining the number of bits required to codify the differences in said manner; and means for identifying the block in the previous frame, as the predicted data block, that block resulting in the least number of bits for codifying in the said manner.

Claim 5

Apparatus for selecting a block in a previous frame that is to be used for a predicted block in a system that codifies differences between data in the predicted block and data in a data block in a current frame in a given manner comprising: means for providing data within a motion block in a current frame; means for providing data of the previous frame; means for deriving respective differences between data in the motion block and data in a plurality of like areas in the previous frame; means for identifying a given number of blocks in the previous frame having the least differences with said motion block; means for determining the numbers of bits required for codifying, in the said manner, the data difference between each of said given number of blocks and data within said motion block; and means for selecting the block resulting in the least number of bits as the predicted block.

Claim 6

Apparatus for selecting data blocks of pixels in a previous frame that are to be used as predicted data blocks of pixels in a system that codifies, in a given manner, the differences between data blocks in a current frame and blocks of data selected from the previous frame as predictions of what current data blocks will be, said apparatus comprising: means for making available a motion block of data from a current frame; means for making available data from the previous frame in each of a plurality of blocks like the motion block that are from an area in the previous frame including the area corresponding to the position of the motion block in the current frame; means for determining the number of bits required to codify, in said given manner, the respective differences between data in said motion block and data in each of said plurality of blocks; and means for selecting as a prediction of what the data in the current frame will be the one of said plurality of blocks for which the number of bits for codifying its difference from the motion block is the smallest.

Claim 7

Apparatus for selecting data blocks of pixels in a previous frame that are to be used as predicted data blocks of pixels in a system that codifies in a given manner the differences between data blocks in a current frame and blocks of data selected from the previous frame as predictions of what current data blocks will be, said apparatus comprising: means for making available a motion block of data from the current frame; means for making available data from the previous frame in each of a plurality of blocks like the motion block that are from an area in the previous frame including an area corresponding to the position of the motion block in the current frame; means for deriving numbers respectively representing the differences between data in said motion block and each of said plurality of blocks; means for designating as a selected block one of said plurality of blocks having the smallest difference number and several blocks having the next smallest difference numbers; means for determining the number of bits required to codify in said given manner the respective differences between data in said motion block and data in each of said selected blocks; and means for selecting as a prediction of what data in a current frame will be the one of said selected blocks for which the number of bits for codifying it in said manner is the least.

Claim 8

Apparatus as set forth in claim 7 wherein each of said numbers is the sum of the absolute differences in amplitude between the pixels in the motion block and the corresponding pixels in one of said plurality of blocks.

Claim 9

Apparatus as set forth in claim 7 wherein each of said numbers is the sum of the squares of the absolute differences in amplitude between corresponding pixels in the motion block and in one of said plurality of blocks.