In natural video sequences, object movement causes regions to be covered or uncovered. Conventional algorithms for region-based motion estimation do not take uncovered regions into full account. Uncovered regions seriously decrease the accuracy of motion estimation. This paper presents an algorithm for increasing the motion estimation accuracy. This algorithm detects uncovered regions and uses them to improve image segmentation and motion estimation. Experimental results show that the presented algorithm is effective in reducing the displaced frame difference, without introducing any extra information for coding applications.