• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.12
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• pp.150-159
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• 2014

The latest video coding standard, HEVC can improve the coding efficiency significantly compared with the H.264/AVC. However the HEVC encoder requires much larger computational complexities. The longer 8-tap interpolation filter of the HEVC which is used in a non-integer motion estimation is one of the reasons and this paper aims to reduce the computational complexities. First of all, three shorter-tap interpolation filters for a motion estimation process are tested rather than the use of a standard interpolation filter. In addition, the fast searching strategies to reduce the number of comparisons for choosing the best non-integer motion vector are proposed. Finally, the interpolation process is selectively applied according to the searching strategy. By combining all of the techniques, the experimental results show that the encoding times can be reduced by 13.6%, 18.5% and 21.1% with the coding efficiency penalties of 0.7%, 1.5% and 2.5%, respectively. For the full-HD video sequences, the coding efficiency penalties are reduced to 0.4%, 1.1% and 1.6% at the same level of the encoding time savings, which shows the effectiveness of the proposed schemes for the high resolution video sequences.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.16B no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2009

Motion estimation (ME) plays an important role in digital video compression. But it limits the performance of image quality and encoding speed and is computational demanding part of the encoder. To reduce computational time and maintain the image quality, integer pel and fractional pel ME methods are proposed in this paper. The proposed method for integer pel ME uses a hierarchical search strategy. This strategy method consists of symmetrical cross-X pattern, multi square grid pattern, diamond patterns. These search patterns places search points symmetrically and evenly that can cover the overall search area not to fall into the local minimum and to reduce the computational time. The proposed method for fractional pel uses full search pattern, center biased fractional pel search pattern and the proposed search pattern. According to block sizes, the proposed method for fractional pel decides the search pattern adaptively. Experiment results show that the speedup improvement of the proposed method over Unsymmetrical cross Multi Hexagon grid Search (UMHexagonS) and Full Search (FS) can be up to around $1.2{\sim}5.2$ times faster. Compared to image quality of FS, the proposed method shows an average PSNR drop of 0.01 dB while showing an average PSNR gain of 0.02 dB in comparison to that of UMHexagonS.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.417-425
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• 2003

H.264, which is the latest video coding standard of both ITU-T(International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication standardization sector) and MPEG(Moving Picture Experts Group), adopts new video coding tools such as variable block size motion estimation, multiple reference frames, quarter-pel motion estimation/compensation(ME/MC), 4${\times}$4 Integer DCT(Discrete Cosine Transform), and Rate-Distortion Optimization, etc. These new video coding tools provide good coding of efficiency compared with existing video coding standards as H.263, MPEG-4, etc. However, these new coding tools require the increase of encoder complexity. Therefore, in order to apply H.264 to many real applications, fast algorithms are required for H.264 coding tools. In this paper, when encoder MacroBlock(MB) mode is decided by rate-distortion optimization tool, fast mode decision algorithm by skipping variable block size ME/MC and spatial-predictive coding, which occupies most encoder complexity, is proposed. In terms of computational complexity, the proposed method runs about 4 times as far as JM(Joint Model) 42 encoder of H.264, while the PSNR(peak signal-to-noise ratio)s of the decoded images are maintained.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.153-156
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• 2006

본 논문에서는 H.264 표준화 기구인 Joint Video Team(JVT) 권고안의 정수 단위 화소 움직임 예측을 위한 Unsymmetrical-cross Multi-Hexagon-grid Search(UMHexagonS) 알고리즘에서 Uneven Multi-Hexagon-grid Search(UMHGS) 부분을 개선한 알고리즘을 제안한다. 제안하는 알고리즘은 이전 프레임의 동일위치 또는 상위 모드에서 이미 선택된 움직임 벡터(MV: Motion Vector)를 이용하여 신호 대 잡음 비(PSNR: Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) 및 평균 비트 율(Average Bitrates)을 유지하면서, 현재 매크로블록의 검색영역을 줄이는 것이 가능하다. 제안하는 알고리즘의 성능은 Full Search Block Matching Algorithm(FSBMA) 및 UMHexagonS 알고리즘의 integer pel 에 대한 SAD(Sum of Absolute Difference) 연산횟수로 비교평가 하였다. 그 결과, FSBMA 에 비하여 평균 97.64%, UMHexagonS 에 비하여는 평균 17.48%의 연산횟수를 감소시키는 우수함을 보였다.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.24 no.9B
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• pp.1697-1703
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• 1999

In this paper, we propose the fast block matching algorithm with half pel accuracy using the lower bound of mean absolute difference (MAD) at search point of half pel accuracy motion estimation. The proposed method uses the lower bound of MAD at search point of half pel accuracy which calculated from MAD's at search points of integer pel accuracy. We can reduce the computational complexity by executing the block matching operation only at the necessary search point. The points are selected when the lower bound of MAD at that point is smaller than reference MAD of integer pel motion estimation. Experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce the computational complexity considerably and keeping the same performance with conventional method.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.28 no.7C
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• pp.726-732
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• 2003

The paper proposes a motion estimation (ME) technique to reduce computational complexity. It is achieved by skipping ME process for macro-blocks decided to be in no need of the operation. Thus, it is called ME skipping technique(MEST). In general, the ME is composed of integer pixel precision ME (IME) followed by half pixel precision ME (HME). The MEST is performed just before an IME process and makes a decision on skipping the IME process according to a criterion based on ME errors of adjacent macro-blocks (MBs) already encoded. When the IME process for a MB is decided to be skipped, which is called ME skip mode, the IME process is skipped and the integer pixel precision motion vector of the MB is just replaced by a predicted vector and used as the input of HME. On the other hands, the IME processes for MBs in ME non-skip mode are not skipped but normally performed. Accordingly, the MEST is very effective to reduce computational complexity when MBs in ME skip mode is abundant. In addition, when the MEST is applied to video encoder, it contributes to more accurate rate control and more robusaess for channel errors. It is experimentally shown that the MEST has the above advantages while maintaining good reconstructed image quality.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.411-417
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• 2006

Motion Estimation (ME) is an important part of video coding process and it takes the largest amount of computation in video compression. Half-pixel and quarter-pixel motion estimation can improve the video compression rate at the cost of higher computational complexity In this paper, we suggest a new efficient low-complexity algorithm for half-pixel and quarter pixel motion estimation. It is based on the experimental results that the sum of absolute differences(SAD) shows parabolic shape and thus can be approximated by using interpolation techniques. The sub-pixel motion vector is searched from the minimum SAD integer-pixel motion vector. The sub-pixel search direction is determined toward the neighboring pixel with the lowest SAD among 8 neighbors. Experimental results show that more than 20% reduction in computation time can be achieved without affecting the quality of video.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.85-92
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• 2009

This paper proposes a full-search block-matching motion estimation circuit with hybrid architecture combining systolic arrays and adder trees for an MPEG-4 encoder. The proposed circuit uses systolic arrays for motion estimation with a small number of clock cycles and adder trees to reduce required circuit resources. The interpolation circuit for 1/2 pixel motion estimation consists of six adders, four subtracters and ten registers. We improved the circuit performance by resource sharing and efficient scheduling techniques. We described the motion estimation circuit for integer and 1/2 pixels at RTL in Verilog HDL. The logic-level circuit synthesized by using 130nm standard cell library contains 218,257 gates and can process 94 D1($720{\times}480$) image frames per second.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.26-28
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• 2007

The motion estimation is the most important technique in the image compression of the video standards. In the case of next generation standards in the video codec as H.264, a high compression-efficiency can be also obtained by using a motion compensation. To obtain the accurate motion search, a motion estimation should be achieved up to 1/2 pixel and 1/4 pixel uiuts. To do this, the computational complexity is increased although the image compression rate is increased. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the advanced sub-pixel block matching algorithm to reduce the computational complexity by using a statistical characteristics of SAD(Sum of Absolute Difference). Generally, the probability of the minimum SAD values is high when searching point is in the distance 1 from the reference point. Thus, we reduced the searching area and then we can overcome the computational complexity problem. The main concept of proposed algorithm, which based on TSS(Three Step Search) method, first we find three minimum SAD points which is in integer distance unit, and then, in second step, the optimal point is in 1/2 pixel unit either between the most minimum SAD value point and the second minimum SAD point or between the most minimum SAD value point and the third minimum SAD point In third step, after finding the smallest SAD value between two SAD values on 1/2 pixel unit, the final optimized point is between the most minimum SAD value and the result value of the third step, in 1/2 pixel unit i.e., 1/4 pixel unit in totally. The conventional TSS method needs an eight.. search points in the sub-pixel steps in 1/2 pixel unit and also an eight search points in 1/4 pixel, to detect the optimal point. However, in proposed algorithm, only total five search points are needed. In the result. 23 % improvement of processing speed is obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.330-332
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• 2007

본 논문에서는 정수 단위 화소 움직임 예측(ME: Motion Estimation)을 위한 Unsymmetrical-cross Multi-Hexagon-grid Search (UMHexagonS) 알고리즘을 기반으로, CIF 크기의 영상을 실시간으로 부호화 하기 위한 정수 단위 화소 움직임 예측 모듈을 제안한다. 제안하는 정수 단위 화소 움직임 예측 모듈은 32 개의 1 차원 연산유닛(PE: Processing Element) 배열, 데이터 선택/재배열 유닛, 내부버퍼, 그리고 트리 구조의 덧셈기로 구성되며, CIF 크기의 영상 100 프레임을 부호화 하기 위한 클럭 사이클을 계산하여 실험결과로 제시하였다. 그 결과 제안하는 구조는 400MHz 의 클럭 속도에서 CIF 크기의 영상을 실시간으로 부호화 할 수 있다.