Adaptive motion tracking block matching algorithms for video coding

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems for video technology Vol. 9; no. 7; pp. 1025 - 1029
• Main Authors: XU, J.-B, PO, L.-M, CHEUNG, C.-K
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 1999; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Accuracy; Adaptive algorithms; Algorithms; Applied sciences; Blocking; Coding; Exact sciences and technology; Image processing; Information, signal and communications theory; Layout; Matching; Motion analysis; Motion compensation; Motion estimation; Redundancy; Searching; Signal processing; Telecommunications and information theory; Tracking; Video coding; Video compression; Video sequences; Waveform; Experimental result; Adaptive algorithm; Motion estimation; Image processing; Coding; Data compression; Spatial correlation; Video signal; Numerical simulation; Search algorithm; Block matching
• ISSN: 1051-8215; 1558-2205
• DOI: 10.1109/76.795056

In most block-based video coding systems, the fast block matching algorithms (BMAs) use the origin as the initial search center, which may not track the motion very well. To improve the accuracy of the fast BMAs, a new adaptive motion tracking search algorithm is proposed. Based on the spatial correlation of motion blocks, a predicted starting search point, which reflects the motion trend of the current block, is adaptively chosen. This predicted search center is found closer to the global minimum, and thus the center-biased BMAs can be used to find the motion vector more efficiently. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm enhances the accuracy of the fast center-biased BMAs, such as the new three-step search, the four-step search, and the block-based gradient descent search, as well as reduces their computational requirement.