Abstract
In many video standards based on inter-frame compression such as H.26x and MPEG, block-matching algorithm has been widely adopted as the method for motion estimation because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Nevertheless, since motion estimation is very complex in computing. Fast algorithm for motion estimation has always been an, important and attractive topic in video compression. From the viewpoint of making motion vector field smoother, this paper proposes a new algorithm SMVFAST. On the basis of motion correlation, it predicts the starting point by neighboring motion vectors according to their SADs. Adaptive search modes are used in its search process through simply classifying motion activity. After discovering the ubiquitous ratio between the SADs of the collocated blocks in the consecutive frames, the paper proposes an effective half-stop criterion that can quickly stop the search process with good enough results. Experiments show that SMVFAST obtains almost the same results as the full search at very low compuration cost, and outperforms MVFAST and PMVFAST in speed and quality, which are adopted by MPEG-4.
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The research was partially supported by the NSFC (Grant No.60075006), the National ‘863’ High-Tech Program of China (Grant No.2001AA114142), the Excellent Young Teachers Program of Ministry of Education of China and the Doctoral Education Foundation of MOE.
LI Bo received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Chongqing University in 1986, Xian Jiaotong University in 1989, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1993, respectively, all in computer science. Now he is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics China. His research interests include image/video compression, video analysis and undersdanding, video surveillance and the applications of artificial intelligence.
LI Wei received the B.S. degree in computer science and engineering from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China in 1995. Currently he is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His research interests include video coding, multimedia systems, VLSI design for video coding.
TU YaMing received the B.S. degree from Harbin Institute of Technology in 1990, and the M.S. degree from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of Beijing University of Aeronautic and Astronautic in 2001. From 1990 to 1998 he worked at the Information Analysis Center of the General Staff of PLA, and is now a senior engineer of the center. He is interested in video compression, motion estimation and compensation, rate control, and computer security.
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Li, B., Li, W. & Tu, Y. A fast block-matching algorithm using smooth motion vector field adaptive search technique. J. Comput. Sci. & Technol. 18, 14–21 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02946646
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02946646