A Fast Algorithm For Rate Optimized Motion Estimation
Yen-Kuang Chen · 1997
Motion estimation is known to be the main bottleneck in real-time encoding applications, and the search for an effective motion estimation algorithm has been a challenging problem for years. This paper describes a new block-matching algorithm which is much faster than the full search algorithm and even produces better rate-distortion curves than the full search algorithms. We observe that piecewise continuous motion field reduces the bit rate for differentially encoded motion vectors. Our motion estimation algorithm exploits the spatial correlations of motion vectors effectively in the sense of producing better rate-distortion curves. Furthermore, we incorporate such correlations in a multiresolution framework to reduce the computational complexity. Simulation shows that this method is quite successful because of the homogeneous and reliable estimation of the displacement vectors.