Adaptive search area for fast motion estimation

TL;DR

This paper introduces an adaptive search area method for block matching motion estimation that significantly reduces computational complexity while maintaining accuracy, achieving at least seven times faster performance than full search algorithms.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel adaptive search area technique that leverages temporal and spatial correlations to improve motion estimation efficiency.

Findings

Speed is at least seven times faster than full search.

Search area adapts to each frame block, reducing unnecessary computations.

Maintains similar accuracy to full search despite smaller search areas.

Abstract

This paper suggests a new method for determining the search area for a motion estimation algorithm based on block matching. The search area is adaptively found in the proposed method for each frame block. This search area is similar to that of the full search (FS) algorithm but smaller for most blocks of a frame. Therefore, the proposed algorithm is analogous to FS in terms of regularity but has much less computational complexity. The temporal and spatial correlations among the motion vectors of blocks are used to find the search area. The matched block is chosen from a rectangular area that the prediction vectors set out. Simulation results indicate that the speed of the proposed algorithm is at least seven times better than the FS algorithm.