An image interpolation method and apparatus by which to quickly generate and
display
motion pictures using a small amount of data. An image input unit inputs a first
image and a second image. A matching processor computes a pixel matching between
those images so that a corresponding point is obtained on the second image with
respect to a lattice point of a mesh on the first image. The matching processor
stores the matching results recorded as a corresponding point file. An intermediate
image generator generates an intermediate image between the first image and the
second image based on the corresponding point file. In particular, in generating
the intermediate image, an attribute of the pixels on one image may be used as
such without the attribute being interpolated between pixels of each image. Thus,
when generating intermediate images, only one image and a smaller corresponding
point file can be used.