Computationally Efficient Motion Estimation Algorithm for HEVC

In this paper, we present a novel computationally efficient motion estimation (ME) algorithm for high-efficiency video coding (HEVC). The proposed algorithm searches in the hexagonal pattern with a fixed number of search points at each grid. It utilizes the correlation between contiguous pixels within the frame. In order to reduce the computational complexity, the proposed algorithm utilizes pixel truncation, adaptive search range, sub-sampling and avoids some of the asymmetrical prediction unit techniques. Simulation results are obtained by using the reference software HM (e n c o d e r_l o w d e l a y_P_m a i n and e n c o d e r_r a n d o m a c c e s s_m a i n profile) and shows 55.49% improvement on search points with approximately the same PSNR and around 1% increment in bit rate as compared to the Test Zonal Search (TZS) ME algorithm. By utilizing the proposed algorithm, the BD-PSNR loss for the video sequences like B a s k e t b a l l P a s s_416 × 240@50 and J o h n n y_1280 × 720@60 is 0.0804 dB and 0.0392 dB respectively as compared to the HM reference software with the e n c o d e r_l o w d e l a y_P_m a i n profile.