Block‐based recursive motion filtering for preserving true motion vectors in time‐varying texture objects

True motion estimation is necessary for deinterlacing, frame‐rate conversion, and film judder compensation. There have been several block‐based approaches to find true motion vectors by tracing minimum sum‐of‐absolute‐difference values by considering spatial and temporal consistency. However, the algorithms cannot find robust motion vectors when the texture of objects is changed. To find the robust motion vectors in the region, a recursive vector selection scheme and an adaptive weighting parameter are proposed. Previous frame vectors are recursively averaged to be utilized for motion error region. The weighting parameter controls fidelity to input vectors and the recursively averaged ones, where the input vectors come from the conventional estimators. If the input vectors are not reliable, then the mean vectors of the previous frame are used for temporal consistency. Experimental results show more robust motion vectors than those of the conventional methods in time‐varying texture objects. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 18, 265–275, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).