A method for the estimation of the motion of electronic picture points, in the plane of the picture, by means of fast, convergent and adaptive processing, notably in order to enable subsequent, efficient processing, by sub-sampling, of the picture sequence without harming the psycho-visual quality of the picture reconstructed from the sub-sampled picture. To each electronic picture point, there is assigned a displacement vector, computed according to a WALKER and RAO type of algorithmic process of prediction/correction, the predicted value of motion of the current point being the value of the original displacement vector associated with a point of origin of the preceding picture, so that said current point is the approximate projection of said point of origin along said original displacement vector.