Simplified Block Matching Algorithm for Fast Motion Estimation in Video Compression

Block matching motion estimation was one of the most important modules in the design of any video encoder. It consumed more than 85% of video encoding time due to searching of a candidate block in the search window of the reference frame. To minimize the search time on block matching, a simplified and efficient Block Matching Algorithm for Fast Motion Estimation was proposed. It had two steps such as prediction and refinement. The temporal correlation among successive frames and the direction of the previously processed frame for predicting the motion vector of the candidate block was considered during prediction step. Different combination of search points was considered in the refinement step of the algorithm which subsequently minimize the search time. Experiments were conducted on various SIF and CIF video sequences. The performance of the algorithm was compared with existing fast block matching motion estimation algorithms which were used in recent video coding standards. The experimental results were shown that the algorithm provided a faster search with minimum distortion when compared to the optimal fast block matching motion estimation algorithms.