MOTION COMPENSATION ESTIMATING DEVICE AND METHOD ACHIEVING IMPROVED MOTION COMPENSATION

An area subdividing unit subdivides a reference image, producing sub-areas. An inter-frame difference calculating device determines inter-frame differences between the reference image and an input image. A moving area detecting unit designates, by reference to the inter-frame differences, moving areas from a plurality of sub-areas. An area integrating device integrates the detected moving areas according to information of the reference image to create a plurality of moving object areas. A motion estimating device estimates motion between the input and reference images for each moving object area to attain motion parameters. A motion compensating unit compensates motion for each moving object area based on the motion parameters to generate a motion compensated prediction image. A motion compensating apparatus is capable of achieving complete and exact motion compensation using area information and a reduced number of encoding operations.