A new fast motion estimation algorithm using adaptive size diamond pattern search with early search termination

Abstract

In this paper, a new dynamic zero motion prejudgment (ZMP) with adaptive diamond pattern search-based algorithm is suggested to enhance the search efficiency and accuracy of motion estimation (ME) in video coding. Firstly, a dynamic ZMP technique is proposed for early identification of the stationary blocks. For non-stationary blocks, a new initial search centre prediction technique is suggested. This new search centre has high probability to be near actual MV. Its distortion is compared against a dynamically predicted threshold to check if this location could be the position of actual MV. If so, search is terminated thereafter, otherwise a variable size diamond pattern is suggested to swiftly attain the global minima. Experimental results show 95% to 99% speed gain of proposed algorithm with only 0.007-0.7 dB PSNR and 0.0001-0.0073 SSIM degradation over full search. Also, the proposed algorithm shows very promising results over other fixed and dynamic search algorithms.