METHOD FOR MOTION ESTIMATION AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING IMAGE

Provided are a method for motion estimation and an apparatus for processing an image. The method includes extracting a pattern from any one frame, classifying the extracted pattern as any one of predetermined basic patterns, counting basic patterns of regions included in macroblocks according to types of the basic patterns to set representative basic patterns of the macroblocks, calculating at least one of a sum of absolute difference (SAD) term coefficient and a smoothness constraint (SC) term coefficient from a correlation between representative basic patterns of macroblocks included in a macroblock group, and calculating a cost function result using at least one of the calculated SAD term coefficient and SC term coefficient.