Moving vector detecting apparatus

Claim 2

A moving vector detecting apparatus in which moving vectors of an entire screen are detected from an amount of movement of a representative pixel in each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the entire screen in order to detect an amount of movement in a predetermined period, said moving vector detecting apparatus comprising: a horizontal low-pass filter for extracting a low-pass component of an image signal of the entire screen in a horizontal direction; first moving vector detecting means for detecting a moving vector in a vertical direction of the image signal, by correlating each of the representative points with a pixel output from said horizontal low-pass filter having a vertical component equal to each respective representative point for the predetermined period; a vertical low-pass filter for extracting a low-pass component of the image signal of the entire screen in a vertical direction; and second moving vector detecting means for detecting a moving vector in a horizontal direction of the image signal, by correlating each of the representative points with a pixel output from said vertical low-pass filter, having a horizontal component equal to each respective representative point for the predetermined period.

Claim 3

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 1 wherein said predetermined period is one frame period.

Claim 4

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 1 wherein said predetermined period is one field period.

Claim 5

A moving vector detecting apparatus in which moving vectors of an entire screen are detected from an amount of movement of a representative pixel in each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the entire screen in order to detect an amount of movement in a predetermined period, said moving vector detecting apparatus comprising: vertical correlation detecting means for detecting vertical correlation for each of the plurality of blocks; first moving vector detecting means for detecting a horizontal moving vector from one of the plurality of blocks, with high vertical correlation; horizontal correlation detecting means for detecting horizontal correlation for each of the plurality of blocks; and second moving vector detecting means for detecting a vertical moving vector from one of the plurality of blocks with high horizontal correlation.

Claim 6

A moving vector detecting apparatus in which moving vectors of an entire screen are detected from an amount of movement of a representative pixel in each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the entire screen in order to detect an amount of movement in a predetermined period, said moving vector detecting apparatus comprising: vertical correlation detecting means for detecting vertical correlation for each of the plurality of blocks; first moving vector detecting means for detecting a horizontal moving vector from one of the plurality of blocks, with high vertical correlation; horizontal correlation detecting means for detecting horizontal correlation for each of the plurality of blocks; and second moving vector detecting means for detecting a vertical moving vector from one of the plurality of blocks with high horizontal correlation.

Claim 7

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 4 wherein said predetermined period is one frame period.

Claim 8

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 4 wherein said predetermined period is one field period.

Claim 9

A moving vector detecting apparatus in which moving vectors of an image are detected by detecting two intersecting one-dimensional moving vectors based on representative points in a plurality of blocks which comprise the image in order to detect an amount of movement for a predetermined period, wherein sampling timing for detecting the two intersecting one-dimensional moving vectors varies depending on a position of the representative points.

Claim 10

A moving vector detecting apparatus in which moving vectors of an image are detected by detecting two intersecting one-dimensional moving vectors based on representative points in a plurality of blocks which comprise the image in order to detect an amount of movement for a predetermined period, wherein sampling timing for detecting the two intersecting one-dimensional moving vectors varies depending on a position of the representative points.

Claim 11

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 7 wherein the sampling timing for detecting a horizontal moving vector is obtained by offsetting the representative point by a vertical moving vector detected in a previous detection.

Claim 12

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 7 wherein the sampling timing for detecting a vertical moving vector is obtained by offsetting the representative point by a horizontal moving vector detected in a previous detection.

Claim 13

A moving vector detecting apparatus in which moving vectors of an entire screen are detected by detecting two intersecting one-dimensional moving vectors based on representative points in a plurality of blocks which comprise an image in order to detect an amount of movement of the image for a predetermined period, said moving vector detecting apparatus comprising: a moving vector predictor for predicting present vertical and horizontal moving vectors from previously detected vertical and horizontal moving vectors, in which a horizontal moving vector is obtained by calculating a pixel on a horizontal straight line passing through a point which gives an offset of the predicted vertical moving vector to the representative point and a vertical moving vector is obtained by calculating a pixel on a vertical straight line passing through a point which gives an offset of the predicted horizontal moving vector to the representative point.

Claim 14

A moving vector detecting apparatus in which moving vectors of an entire screen are detected by detecting two intersecting one-dimensional moving vectors based on representative points in a plurality of blocks which comprise an image in order to detect an amount of movement of the image for a predetermined period, said moving vector detecting apparatus comprising: a moving vector predictor for predicting present vertical and horizontal moving vectors from previously detected vertical and horizontal moving vectors, in which a horizontal moving vector is obtained by calculating a pixel on a horizontal straight line passing through a point which gives an offset of the predicted vertical moving vector to the representative point and a vertical moving vector is obtained by calculating a pixel on a vertical straight line passing through a point which gives an offset of the predicted horizontal moving vector to the representative point.

Claim 15

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 10 wherein a value obtained by averaging the previously detected moving vectors at a point in time is the predicted present moving vector when the previously detected moving vectors have numerous high frequency components higher than a prescribed frequency while a value predicted from moving vectors detected by the last three detections is the predicted present moving vector when the previously detected moving vectors have numerous low frequency components lower than the prescribed frequency.

Claim 16

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 11 wherein, when the moving vector detected by the last three detections is V(t-1), V(t-2), and V(t-3), the predicted moving vector V(t) is represented by: V(t)=3a·V(t-1)-3b·V(t-2)+c·V(t-3) wherein a, b, and c are coefficients.

Claim 17

A moving vector detecting apparatus comprising: vertical low-pass filter means for receiving and filtering a two-dimensional video signal to produce a vertically correlated video signal; horizontal moving detector means for receiving the vertically correlated video signal and correlating a representative point for each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the two-dimensional video signal with a pixel from each of the plurality of blocks having a horizontal component equal to a horizontal component of each respective representative point, for a predetermined period to produce a horizontal moving vector; horizontal low-pass filter means for receiving and filtering the two-dimensional video signal to produce a horizontally correlated video signal; and vertical moving detector means for receiving the horizontally correlated video signal and correlating the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks with a pixel from each of the plurality of blocks having a vertical component equal to a vertical component of each respective representative point, for the predetermined period to produce a vertical moving vector.

Claim 18

A moving vector detecting apparatus comprising: vertical low-pass filter means for receiving and filtering a two-dimensional video signal to produce a vertically correlated video signal; horizontal moving detector means for receiving the vertically correlated video signal and correlating a representative point for each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the two-dimensional video signal with a pixel from each of the plurality of blocks having a horizontal component equal to a horizontal component of each respective representative point, for a predetermined period to produce a horizontal moving vector; horizontal low-pass filter means for receiving and filtering the two-dimensional video signal to produce a horizontally correlated video signal; and vertical moving detector means for receiving the horizontally correlated video signal and correlating the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks with a pixel from each of the plurality of blocks having a vertical component equal to a vertical component of each respective representative point, for the predetermined period to produce a vertical moving vector.

Claim 19

An image blue apparatus including the moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 13.

Claim 20

A video camera including the image blue apparatus of claim 14.

Claim 21

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 15, further comprising: two-dimensional detector means for determining movement of an image represented by the two-dimensional video signal by calculating a two-dimensional moving vector from the horizontal moving vector and the vertical moving vector.

Claim 22

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 15, further comprising: two-dimensional low-pass filter means for filtering the two-dimensional video signal prior to receiving and filtering by said vertical and horizontal low-pass filter means; wherein a vertical cut-off frequency of said vertical low-pass filter means is lower than a vertical cut-off frequency of said two-dimensional low-pass filter means and a horizontal cut-off frequency of said horizontal low-pass filter means is lower than a horizontal cut-off frequency of said two-dimensional low-pass filter means.

Claim 23

The moving vector detector of claim 15, said vertical moving detector means including, vertical difference absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks in a present frame, vertical accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference calculated by said vertical difference absolute value calculating means, and one-dimensional vector calculating means for calculating the vertical moving vector from the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said vertical accumulated addition table means.

Claim 24

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 15, wherein said horizontal low-pass filter means and said vertical low-pass filter means suppress a step change in dispersion of the horizontal and vertical moving vectors, respectively.

Claim 25

The moving vector detector of claim 15, wherein said horizontal and vertical moving detectors perform a time correlation.

Claim 26

The moving vector detector of claim 20, wherein said horizontal and vertical moving detectors perform an inter-frame correlation.

Claim 27

The moving vector detector of claim 20, wherein said horizontal and vertical moving detectors perform an inter-field correlation.

Claim 28

The moving vector detector of claim 15, said horizontal moving detector means including, horizontal difference absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks in a present frame, horizontal accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference calculated by said horizontal difference absolute value calculating means, and one-dimensional vector calculating means for calculating the horizontal moving vector from the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said horizontal accumulated addition table means.

Claim 29

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 23, wherein the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said vertical accumulated addition table means is represented by: Dy=Σ|R.sub.ij -P.sub.ij (0,y)| where Dy=the absolute value stored in said vertical accumulated addition table, R ij =the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks, and P ij (0,y)=the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 30

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 23, wherein the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said horizontal accumulated addition table means is represented by: Dx=Σ|R.sub.ij -P.sub.ij (x,0)| where Dx=the absolute value stored in said horizontal accumulated addition table, R ij =the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks, and P ij (x,0)=the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 31

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 25, wherein said one-dimensional vector calculating means selects an address x, where Dx is a minimum in order to maximize horizontal inter-frame correlation.

Claim 32

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 25, wherein said one-dimensional vector calculating means selects an address y, where Dy is a minimum in order to maximize vertical inter-frame correlation.

Claim 33

A moving vector detector apparatus, comprising input means for receiving a image; representative point means for determining a representative point for each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the image, for a predetermined period; horizontal correlation detecting means for detecting a horizontal correlation value for each of the plurality of blocks; vertical correlation detecting means for detecting a vertical correlation value for each of the plurality of blocks; horizontal vector detecting means for selecting one of the plurality of blocks with a vertical correlation value greater than a predetermined vertical value and correlating a pixel of the image with the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks to produce a horizontal moving vector; and vertical vector detecting means for selecting one of the plurality of blocks with a horizontal correlation value greater than a predetermined horizontal value and correlating a pixel of the image with the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks to produce a vertical moving vector.

Claim 34

A moving vector detector apparatus, comprising input means for receiving a image; representative point means for determining a representative point for each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the image, for a predetermined period; horizontal correlation detecting means for detecting a horizontal correlation value for each of the plurality of blocks; vertical correlation detecting means for detecting a vertical correlation value for each of the plurality of blocks; horizontal vector detecting means for selecting one of the plurality of blocks with a vertical correlation value greater than a predetermined vertical value and correlating a pixel of the image with the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks to produce a horizontal moving vector; and vertical vector detecting means for selecting one of the plurality of blocks with a horizontal correlation value greater than a predetermined horizontal value and correlating a pixel of the image with the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks to produce a vertical moving vector.

Claim 35

An image blur apparatus including the moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 28.

Claim 36

A video camera including the image blue apparatus of claim 29.

Claim 37

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 30, further comprising: two-dimensional detector means for determining movement of the image by calculating a two-dimensional moving vector from the horizontal moving vector and the vertical moving vector.

Claim 38

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 30, further comprising: two dimensional low-pass filter means for filtering the image prior to receiving by said input means.

Claim 39

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 30, wherein said horizontal and vertical correlation detecting means suppress a steep change in dispersion of the horizontal and vertical moving vectors, respectively.

Claim 40

The moving vector detector of claim 30, said vertical correlation detecting means including, vertical difference absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between a value of a pixel in a previous frame and a value of the pixel in a present frame for each of the plurality of blocks, vertical correlation accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks, vertical correlation judging means for comparing the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said vertical correlation accumulated addition table with a predetermined value, and memory means for storing a result of the comparison made by said vertical correlation judging means as the vertical correlation value for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 41

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 24, wherein the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored by said vertical correlation accumulated addition table means is represented by: Dy.sub.ij =Σ|P.sub.ij (x,y)-P.sub.ij (x,y-1)| where Dy ij =the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks, P ij (x,y)=the value of the pixel in the present frame, and P ij (x,y-1)=the value of the pixel in the previous frame.

Claim 42

The moving vector detector of claim 30, said horizontal correlation detecting means including, horizontal difference absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between a value of a pixel in a previous frame and a value of the pixel in a present frame for each of the plurality of blocks, horizontal correlation accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks, horizontal correlation judging means for comparing the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said horizontal correlation accumulated addition table with a predetermined value, and memory means for storing a result of the comparison made by said horizontal correlation judging means as the horizontal correlation value for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 43

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 36, wherein the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored by said horizontal correlation accumulated addition table means is represented by: Dx.sub.ij =Σ|P.sub.ij (x,y)-P.sub.ij (x-1,y)| where Dx ij =the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks, P ij (x,y)=the value of the pixel in the present frame, and P ij (x,y-1)=the value of the pixel in the previous frame.

Claim 44

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 30, wherein said horizontal and vertical vector detecting means perform a time correlation.

Claim 45

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 38, wherein said horizontal and vertical vector detecting means perform an inter-frame correlation.

Claim 46

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 38, wherein said horizontal and vertical vector detecting means perform an inter-field correlation.

Claim 47

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 30, said horizontal vector detecting means including, horizontal difference absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks in a present frame, horizontal block selecting means for outputting a value dependent on the horizontal correlation value and the absolute value for each of the plurality of blocks; horizontal accumulation addition table means for storing the value output by said horizontal block selecting means, and one-dimensional vector calculating means for calculating the horizontal moving vector from the value output for each of the plurality of blocks by said horizontal accumulation addition table means.

Claim 48

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 41, wherein the value stored by said horizontal accumulation addition table means for each of the plurality of blocks is represented by: Δx=Σ|R.sub.ij -P.sub.ij (x,0)| where Δx=the value stored in said horizontal accumulation addition table means, R ij =the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks, and P ij (x,0)=the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 49

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 42, wherein said one-dimensional vector calculating means selects an address of said horizontal accumulation addition table means, where Δx is a minimum in order to maximize horizontal inter-period correlation.

Claim 50

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 30, said vertical vector detecting means including, vertical difference absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks in a present frame, vertical block selecting means for outputting a value dependent on the vertical correlation value and the absolute value for each of the plurality of blocks; vertical accumulation addition table means for storing the value output by said vertical block selecting means, and one-dimensional vector calculating means for calculating the vertical moving vector from the value output for each of the plurality of blocks by said vertical accumulation addition table means.

Claim 51

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 44, wherein the value stored by said vertical accumulation addition table means for each of the plurality of blocks is represented by: Δy=Σ|R.sub.ij -P.sub.ij (0,y)| where Δy=the value stored in said vertical accumulation addition table means, R ij =the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks, and P ij (0,y)=the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 52

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 45, wherein said one-dimensional vector calculating means selects an address of said vertical accumulation addition table means, where Δy is a minimum in order to maximize vertical inter-period correlation.

Claim 53

A moving vector detecting apparatus, comprising: input means for receiving an image; representative point means for determining a representative point for each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the image, for a predetermined period; vertical comparative timing designating means for adding a horizontal offset to a pixel in a vertical direction from the representation point, for each of the plurality of blocks; horizontal comparative timing designating means for adding a vertical offset to a pixel in a horizontal direction from the representative point, for each of the plurality of blocks; vertical absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the horizontally offset pixel in a present frame; horizontal absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the vertically offset pixel in a present frame; vertical accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference, for each of the plurality of blocks, calculated by said vertical absolute value calculating means; horizontal accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference, for each of the plurality of blocks, calculated by said horizontal absolute value calculating means; and one-dimensional vector calculating means for calculating a horizontal moving vector and a vertical moving vector from the absolute values stored in said horizontal and vertical accumulated addition tables, respectively.

Claim 54

A moving vector detecting apparatus, comprising: input means for receiving an image; representative point means for determining a representative point for each of a plurality of blocks which comprise the image, for a predetermined period; vertical comparative timing designating means for adding a horizontal offset to a pixel in a vertical direction from the representation point, for each of the plurality of blocks; horizontal comparative timing designating means for adding a vertical offset to a pixel in a horizontal direction from the representative point, for each of the plurality of blocks; vertical absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the horizontally offset pixel in a present frame; horizontal absolute value calculating means for calculating an absolute value of a difference between the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks in a previous frame and the vertically offset pixel in a present frame; vertical accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference, for each of the plurality of blocks, calculated by said vertical absolute value calculating means; horizontal accumulated addition table means for storing the absolute value of the difference, for each of the plurality of blocks, calculated by said horizontal absolute value calculating means; and one-dimensional vector calculating means for calculating a horizontal moving vector and a vertical moving vector from the absolute values stored in said horizontal and vertical accumulated addition tables, respectively.

Claim 55

An image blue apparatus including the moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 47.

Claim 56

A video camera including the image blur apparatus of claim 48.

Claim 57

The moving vector detecting apparatus of claim 49, further comprising; two-dimensional detector means for determining movement of the image by calculating a two-dimensional moving vector from the horizontal moving vector and the vertical moving vector.

Claim 58

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 49, further comprising: loop back means for setting the horizontal and vertical offsets for the image equal to the horizontal and vertical moving vectors calculated by said one-dimensional vector calculating means for a subsequent image.

Claim 59

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 49, wherein the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said horizontal accumulated addition table means is represented by: Dx=Σ|R.sub.ij -P.sub.ij (x,0)| where Dx=the absolute value stored in said horizontal accumulated addition table, R ij =the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks, and P ij (x,0)=the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 60

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 52, wherein said one-dimensional vector calculating means selects an address x, where Dx is a minimum in order to maximize horizontal inter-frame correlation.

Claim 61

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 49, wherein the absolute value of the difference for each of the plurality of blocks stored in said vertical accumulated addition table means is represented by: Dy=Σ|R.sub.ij -P.sub.ij (x,0)| where Dx=the absolute value stored in said vertical accumulated addition table, R ij =the representative point for each of the plurality of blocks, and P ij (x,0)=the pixel for each of the plurality of blocks.

Claim 62

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 54, wherein said one-dimensional vector calculating means selects an address y, where Dy is a minimum in order to maximize vertical inter-frame correlation.

Claim 63

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 49, further comprising: horizontal moving vector predicting means for predicting a subsequent horizontal moving vector for a subsequent image and outputting the subsequent horizontal moving vector to said horizontal comparative timing designating means; and vertical moving vector predicting means for predicting a subsequent vertical moving vector predicting means for predicting a subsequent vertical moving vector for the subsequent image and outputting the subsequent vertical moving vector to said vertical comparative timing designating means.

Claim 64

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 56, said horizontal moving vector predicting means including horizontal difference calculating means for calculating the subsequent horizontal moving vector utilizing the horizontal moving vector and a previous horizontal moving vector, and said vertical moving vector predicting means including vertical difference calculating means for calculating the subsequent vertical moving vector utilizing the vertical moving vector and a previous vertical moving vector.

Claim 65

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 57, wherein the subsequent horizontal moving vector and the subsequent vertical moving vector are represented by: v(t)=2a·V(t-1)-b·V(t-2) where V(t)=the subsequent horizontal and vertical moving vectors, V(t-1)=the horizontal and vertical moving vectors, V(t-2)=the previous horizontal and vertical moving vectors, and a,b=coefficients.

Claim 66

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 56, said horizontal moving vector predicting means including horizontal low-pass filtering means for calculating the subsequent horizontal moving vector utilizing the horizontal moving vector and a previous moving vector, and said vertical moving vector predicting means including vertical low-pass filtering means for calculating the subsequent vertical moving vector utilizing the vertical moving vector and a previous moving vector.

Claim 67

The moving vector detector apparatus of claim 59, wherein the subsequent horizontal moving vector and the subsequent vertical moving vector are represented by: V(t)=3a·V(T-1)-3b·V(t-2)+c·V(t-3) where V(t)=the subsequent horizontal and vertical moving vectors, V(t-1)=the horizontal and vertical moving vectors, V(t-2) and V(t-3)=the two previous horizontal and vertical moving vectors, and a, b, and c=coefficients.