Coarse-to-fine frame interpolation for frame rate up-conversion using pyramid structure

In this paper, we present a frame interpolation algorithm for frame rate up-conversion (FRC). It is based on pyramid structure and the motion compensation process is performed independently at each resolution level. A technique similar to the control grid interpolation (CGI) is employed to process hole regions generated at top level of the pyramid. Bidirectional motion estimation (ME) and prediction mode selection are utilized at intermediate levels. Finally at bottom level, motion vector refinement and overlapped block motion compensation (OBMC) are used. In experiments, the frame rate of the progressive video sequence is up-converted by a factor of two and the performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with that of the conventional frame interpolation method. Experiments with several test sequences show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Index Terms — frame interpolation, HDTV, motion compensation, true motion estimation, multiresolution.