An Algorithm with Low Complexity for Fast Motion Estimation in Digital Video Coding
Seung‐Chul Lee, Min‐Ki Kim, Jechang Jeong · 2006
In video standards such as MPEG-1/2/4 and H.264/AVC, motion estimation / compensation(ME/MC) process causes the most encoding complexity of video encoder. The full search method, which is used in general video codecs, exhausts much encoding time because it compares current macroblock with those at all positions within search window for searching a matched block. For the alleviation of this problem, the fast search methods such as TSS, NTSS, DS and HEXBS are exploited at first. Thereafter, DS based MVFAST, PMVFAST, MAS and FAME, which utilize temporal or spacial correlation characteristics of motion vectors, are developed. But there remain the problems of image quality degradation and algorithm complexity increase. In this thesis, the proposed algorithm maximizes search speed and minimizes the degradation of image quality by determining initial search point correctly and using simple one-dimension search patterns considering motion characteristics of each frame.