A low-power oriented architecture for H.264 variable block size motion estimation based on a resource sharing scheme

In the Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard, motion estimation (ME) adopts many new features to increase the coding performances such as block matching algorithm (BMA), motion vector prediction (MVP) and variable block size motion estimation (VBSME). However, VBSME is utilized in the MPEG4-AVC/H.264 standard which leads to high computational complexity and data dependency that make the hardware implementation very complex.     

Novel two-layer motion estimation for video coding

In this paper,we proposed a novel Two-layer Motion Estimation （TME） which searches motion vectors on two layers with partial distortion measures in order to reduce the overwhelming computational complexity of Motion Estimation （ME） in video coding.A layer is an image which is derived from the reference frame such that the sum of a block of pixels in the reference frame determines the point of a layer.It has been noticed on different video sequences that many motion vectors on the layers are the same as those searched on the reference frame.The proposed TME performs a coarse search on the first layer to identify the small region in which the best candidate block is likely to be positioned and then perform local refined search on the next layer to pick the best candidate block in the located small area.The key feature of TME is its flexibility of mixing with any fast search algorithm.Experimental results on a wide variety of video sequences show that the proposed algorithm has achieved both fast speed and good motion prediction quality when compared to well known as well as the state-of-the-art fast block matching algorithms.     

一种用于MPEG-4形状编码的快速运动估计算法

该文提出了一种用于MPEG-4形状编码的快速运动估计算法。该算法利用了形状编码及形状信息的固有特性,即基于上下文的运动估计特性、相邻二值alpha块的运动矢量相关性以及形状信息的二值特性。模拟结果表明,该算法具有运算量少、处理速度快的特点,适用于MPEG-4形状编码的实时软件实现。     

Improvement of region-based motion estimation by considering uncovered regions

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.     

A simple and efficient block motion estimation algorithm based on full-search array architecture

This paper first presents an array structure using ±1 full-search (FS) architecture as the search engine of block motion estimation which takes advantage of the design regularity of FS. An efficient algorithm named modified gradient-descent search (MGDS) is then introduced based on the proposed architecture. MGDS utilizes an adaptive computation distribution mechanism to efficiently allocate computation of the employed ±1 FS array to blocks or frames of video sequences. Experimental results indicate that MGDS uniformly achieves a higher quality than FS by an amount that is dependent on motion activities of sequences.     

Fast motion estimation for H.264

Several specific features have been incorporated into Motion estimation (ME) in H.264 coding standard to improve its coding efficiency. However, they result in very high computational load. In this paper, a fast ME algorithm is proposed to reduce the computational complexity. First, a mode discriminant method is used to free the encoder from checking the small block size modes in homogeneous regions. Second, a condensed hierarchical block matching method and a spatial neighbor searching scheme are employed to find the best full-pixel motion vector. Finally, direction-based selection rule is utilized to reduce the searching range in sub-pixel ME process. Experimental results on commonly used QCIF and CIF format test sequences have shown that the proposed algorithm achieves a reduction of 88% ME process time on average, while incurring only 0.033 dB loss in PSNR and 0.50% increment on the total bit rate compared with that of exhaustive ME process, which is a default approach adopted in the JM reference software.     

Perceptual stereoscopic video coding using disparity just-noticeable-distortion model

In this paper, we propose perceptual stereoscopic video coding using a disparity just-noticeable-distortion (JND) model. We obtain the disparity JND model in stereo videos by disparity masking effects of the human visual system (HVS). The disparity JND model represents the maximum distortion of stereo perception that HVS cannot perceive. Based on the disparity JND model, we adjust prediction residuals to remove the perceptual redundancy of stereo videos. Thus, we achieve significant bit-rate saving while maintaining visual quality. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves coding efficiency without loss of stereoscopic perceptual quality.     

Multi-resolution motion estimation and compensation based on adjacent prediction of frame difference in wavelet domain

Aiming at the higher bit-rate occupation of motion vector encoding and more time load of full-searching strategies,a multi-resolution motion estimation and compensation algorithm based on adjacent prediction of frame difference was proposed.Differential motion detection was employed to image sequences and proper threshold was adopted to identify the connected region.Then the motion region was extracted to carry out motion estimation and motion compensation on it.The experiment results show that the encoding efficiency of motion vector is promoted,the complexity of motion es timation is reduced and the quality of the reconstruction image at the same bit-rate as Multi-Reso lution Motion Estimation (MRME) is improved.     

小数像素运动估计快速算法

高精度的匹配和补偿可以减少预测误差，提高压缩视频图像的质量。提出了一种小数像素精度视频运动估计的快速算法，根据半像素精度运动估计的中间结果，直接推算出最高精度的运动估计。根据该算法可以快速得到任意小数像素精度的运动估计。     

一种基于子搜索格雷码核的快速视频块运动估计算法

快速视频块运动估计是视频编码中的一个重要问题。在格雷码核( GCK)算法的基础上,提出一种改进的子搜索格雷码核( Sub-GCK)算法。理论上的计算复杂度分析表明：提出的子搜索格雷码核算法的运算量大约为原始格雷码核算法的22.1%。实验比较了子搜索格雷码核算法、原始格雷码核算法和其他几种常见的运动估计算法的编码性能,结果显示：新算法在保证编码质量的前提下,有效降低了运动估计时间,时间约为原始格雷码核算法的41.9%。     

一种低资源消耗的运动估计VLSI实现算法

现有的VLSI(verylarge scale integration)视频编码芯片多使用全搜索运动估计(ME)方法,且没有搜索中心偏移(CB)的并行实现方法。本文提出一种适合VLSI的H.264、AVS CB并行搜索方案,减少搜索点数量,降低逻辑资源的消耗,并且使用预测高概率区域的方法,保证ME精度。实验表明,本方法具备较好的率失真性能。在现场可编程门阵列(FPGA)平台上实现了本算法,逻辑综合的数据表明,硬件资源消耗降低了64%。本算法可应用于标清和高清电视(HDTV,hign-definition television)视频编码器。     

一种适用于AVS-M的自适应快速运动估计算法

为了减小移动视频编码标准(AVS-M)中运动估计模块的复杂度,提出了一种快速、有效的块匹配运动估计算法.该算法充分利用了视频图像中运动矢量场的中心偏置特性和时空相关性,根据运动类型自适应的选择搜索起点和搜索策略,结合改进的搜索模板和高效搜索中止准则,有效地降低了运动估计的运算量.实验结果表明,该算法在保证搜索精度的同时,大大减少了搜索点数.     

Homography-based block motion estimation for video coding of PTZ cameras

Due to the constrained movement of pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras, two frames in the video sequences captured by such cameras can be geometrically related by a relationship (homography). This geometric relationship is helpful for reducing the spatial redundancy in video coding. In this paper, by exploiting the homography between two frames with optical flow tracking algorithm, we propose a novel homography-based search (HBS) algorithm for block motion estimation in coding the sequences captured by PTZ cameras. In addition, adaptive thresholds are adopted in our method to classify different kinds of blocks. Compared with other traditional fast algorithms, the proposed HBS algorithm is proved to be more efficient for the sequences captured by PTZ cameras. And compared to our previous work in ICME (Cui et al., 2011), which only deals with pan-tilt (PT) camera and calculates the homography with mechanical devices, in this extended work we compute the homography by using information on images instead.     

A new distortion measure for motion estimation in motion-compensated hybrid video coding

In the video coding standards MPEG-x and H.26x, a motion-compensated prediction technique is used for enhancing the coding performance of bitrate reduction or peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) improvement. This technique takes advantage of the correlation between consecutive frames in the time domain, which is relatively higher than that between adjacent blocks in the spatial domain. In order to utilize the correlation between consecutive frames, the conventional video coding standards have used the motion estimation (ME) and compensation technique, where the Sum of the Absolute Differences (SAD) is usually used as the distortion measure. The ME estimates the reference block that could minimize the residual signal between the current and reference blocks. However, the SAD is not appropriate to the specific sequences that have global or local illumination changes. In addition, the high-resolution video sequences have higher spatial correlation than the low-resolution video sequences in general. Therefore, a new distortion measure that can consider spatial and temporal correlation simultaneously may be helpful to enhance the coding performance. The proposed distortion measure searches for a reference block that minimizes the motion-compensated residual signal when the DC-component is predicted. In our proposed algorithm, the maximum BD-rate improvement is up to 13.6% for illumination-changed video sequences, and the average BD-rate improvement is 6.6% for various high-resolution video sequences in the baseline profile.     

H.264/AVC中快速1/4像素运动估计算法

提出了一种快速1/4像素的运动估计算法.该算法基于运动补偿预测误差模型,与传统的1/4像素的分层运动估计算法不同,仅通过一步计算就能直接得到1/4像素精度的运动矢量,而且完全避免了运算量很大的分数像素内插运算和整像素搜索完成后的分数像素搜索.实验结果表明,该算法在保持图像质量的前提下极大地减少了1/4像素运动估计的运算量.     

POLYNOMIAL MODEL BASED FAST FRACTIONAL PIXEL SEARCH ALGORITHM FOR H.264/AVC

This paper proposed a novel fast fractional pixel search algorithm based on polynomial model. With the analysis of distribution characteristics of motion compensation error surface inside tractional pixel searching window, the matching error is fitted with parabola along horizontal and vertical direction respectively. The proposcd searching strategy needs to check only 6 points rather than 16 or 24 points, which are used in the l lierarchical Fractional Pel Search algorithm （HFPS） for 1/4-pel and 1/8-pel Motion Estimation （ME）. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm shows very good capability in keeping the rate distortion performance while reduces computation load to a large extent compared with HFPS algorithm.     

图像的区域描述方法及运动估计

文中提出一种任意形状区域的图像描述方法进行图像序列的运动估计。首先,对初始帧图像采用保边界平滑,然后,对平滑帧进行分水岭分割。根据标记图像,将图像以区域邻接图的方式进行存储。为解决过度分割的问题,给出了区域的灰度特性和边界强度及区域尺寸相结合的融合准则。最后,每个区域采用仿射运动模型及非线性最小均方法进行参数优化。得到的运动矢量场同基于像素点的估计方法相比具有更高的一致性和抗干扰性,运动补偿差图像的峰值信噪比得以提高。     

Fuzzy quantization based bit transform for low bit-resolution motion estimation

This study proposes a novel fuzzy quantization based bit transform for low bit-resolution motion estimation. We formalize the procedure of bit resolution reduction by two successive steps, namely interval partitioning and interval mapping. The former is a many-to-one mapping which determines motion estimation performance, while the latter is a one-to-one mapping. To gain a reasonable interval partitioning, we propose a non-uniform quantization method to compute coarse thresholds. They are then refined by using a membership function to solve the mismatch of pixel values near threshold caused by camera noise, coding distortion, etc. Afterwards, we discuss that the sum of absolute difference (SAD) is one of the fast matching metrics suitable for low bit-resolution motion estimation in the sense of mean squared errors. A fuzzy quantization based low bit-resolution motion estimation algorithm is consequently proposed. Our algorithm not only can be directly employed in video codecs, but also be applied to other fast or complexity scalable motion estimation algorithms. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can always achieve good motion estimation performances for video sequences with various characteristics. Compared with one-bit transform, multi-thresholding two-bit transform, and adaptive quantization based two-bit transform, our bit transform separately gains 0.98 dB, 0.42 dB, and 0.24 dB improvement in terms of average peak signal-to-noise ratio, with less computational cost as well.     

A coding scheme using global motion estimation for AVS P-frame

Block matching has been used for motion estimation and motion compensation in the Audio and Video Standard （AVS） for years. While having an acceptable performance in describing motion between frames, it requires quite a few bits to represent the motion vectors. In certain circumstances, the use of global motion estimation and compensation would perform equally well or even better than the block matching in terms of motion accuracy, while it results in the coding of global motion model parameters. In this letter, we modify an AVS coder by adding （1） six global motion model parameters to the frame header, and （2） mode selection among INTRA, SKIP, INTER-16×16, INTER-16×8, INTER-8×16, INTER-8×8, and Global Motion Compensation （GMC） modes by Lagrange optimal rate-distortion criteria. Simulation results demonstrate that over 0.1dB improvement in PSNR is obtained compared to the AVS coder for an average coded P-frame with the same bitrate.     

Small-diamond-based search algorithm for fast block motion estimation

A good fast motion search algorithm should efficiently speed up the encoding time and keep the quality of encoded video stable at the same time. Researches have shown that many fast algorithms lose the quality requirement in some special video sequences. These video sequences often have heavy motions and need large search windows for motion vector search. E3SS, DS, and E-HEXBS, which are famous algorithms, are not good enough in these sequences. As to UMHexagonS, it is able to meet the high video quality requirement very well, but it costs too much computation. This paper introduces a multi-stage motion estimation algorithm. The algorithm ensures getting good video quality while decreases the motion search time efficiently. It divides the search regions into many un-overlapped small-diamond regions and forces the motion search to go outward for larger motion vectors. This method is also designed to avoid mistaking local optimal motion vectors. For this reason, the selected motion vector is refined by several stages. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm uses almost the same number of checking points as E3SS but achieves a better quality. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is also tested in H.264/AVC JM9.5 encoder; the experimental results show that this algorithm is also suitable for variable block-size motion estimation.