• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.388-396
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• 2003

In this paper, a fast motion search algorithm that performs motion search for variable blocks in integer pixel unit is proposed. The proposed method is based on the successive elimination algorithm (SEA) using sum norms to find the best estimate of motion vector and obtains the best estimate of the motion vectors of blocks, including 16${\times}$8, 8${\times}$16, and 8${\times}$8, by searching eight pixels around the best motion vector of 16${\times}$16 block obtained from all candidates. And the motion vectors of blocks, including 8${\times}$4, 4${\times}$8, and 4${\times}$4, is obtained by searching eight pixels around the best motion vector of 8${\times}$8 block. The proposed motion search is applied to the H.264 encoder that performs variable blocks motion estimation (ME). In terms of computational complexity, the proposed search algorithm for motion estimation (ME) calculates motion vectors in about 23.8 times speed compared with the spiral full search without early termination and 4.6 times speed compared with the motion estimation method using hierarchical sum of absolute difference (SAD) of 4${\times}$4 blocks, while it shows 0.1dB∼0.4dB peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) drop in comparison to the spiral full search.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.278-288
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• 2007

We propose the fast full search algorithm that reduces the computational load of the block matching algorithm which is used for a motion estimation in the video coding. Since the conventional spiral search method starts searching at the center of the search window and then moves search point to estimate the motion vector pixel by pixel, it is good for the slow motion picture. However we proposed the efficient motion estimation method which is good for the fast and slow motion picture. Firstly, when finding the initial threshold value, we use the expanded predictor that can approximately calculate minimum threshold value. The proposed algorithm estimates the motion in the new search order after partitioning the search window and adapt the directional search order in the re-divided search window. At the result, we can check that the proposed algorithm reduces the computational load 94% in average compared to the conventional spiral full search algorithm without any loss of image quality.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.32 no.1C
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• pp.9-15
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• 2007

We propose the fast full search algorithm that reduces the computation of the block matching algorithm which is used for motion estimation of the video coding. Since the conventional spiral search method starts searching at the center of the search window and then moves search point to estimate the motion vector pixel by pixel, it is good for the slow motion pictures. However the proposed method is good for the fast and slow motion because it estimates the motion in the new search order after partitioning the search window. Also, when finding the motion vector, this paper presents the method that reduces the complexity by computing the matching error in the order which is determined by local image complexity. The proposed algorithm reduces the computation up to 99% for block matching error compared with the conventional spiral full search algorithm without any loss of image quality.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.11d
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• pp.167-170
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• 2000

In this paper, we present a fast algorithm for the motion estimation using the efficient selection of an initial search position. In the method, we select the initial search position using the motion vector from the subsmpled images, the predicted motion vector from the neighbor blocks, and the (0,0) motion vector. While searching the candidate blocks, we use the spiral search pattern with the successive elimination algorithm(SEA) and the partial distortion elimination(PDE). The experiment results show that the complexity of the proposed algorithm is about 2∼3 times faster than the three-step search(TSS) with the PSNR loss of just 0.05［dB］∼0.1［dB］ than the full search algorithm PSNR. The search complexity can be reduced with quite a few PSNR loss by controling the number of the depth in the spiral search pattern.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.128-136
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a variable step search fast motion estimation algorithm using local statistics of neighboring motion vectors. Using the degree of correlation between neighboring motion vectors, motion search range is adaptively adjusted to reduce unnecessary search points. Based on the adjusted search range, motion vector is obtained by variable search step. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has the capability to dramatically reduce the search points and computing cost for motion estimation, comparing to fast full spiral search motion estimation and other fast motion estimation.