• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.42 no.2 s.302
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• pp.151-160
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• 2005

In this paper, we propose a new fast motion estimation algorithm based on successive elimination algorithm (SEA) which can dramatically reduce heavy complexity of the variable block size motion estimation in H.264 encoder. The proposed method applies the conventional SEA in the hierarchical manner to the seven block modes. That is, the proposed algorithm can remove the unnecessary computation of SAD by means of the process that the previous minimum SAD is compared to a current SAD for each mode which is obtained by accumulating sum norms or SAD of $4\times4$ blocks. As a result, we have tighter bound in the inequality between SAD and sum norm than in the ordinary SEA. If the basic size of the block is smaller than $4\times4$, the bound will become tighter but it also causes to increase computational complexity, specifically addition operations for sum norm. Compared with fast full search algorithm of JM of H.264, our algorithm saves 60 to $70\%$ of computation on average for several image sequences.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.12 no.10
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• pp.1845-1852
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• 2008

The key elements of inter prediction are motion estimation(ME) and motion compensation(MC). Motion estimation is to find the optimum motion vectors, not only by using a distance criteria like the SAD, but also by taking into account the resulting number of 비트s in the 비트 stream. Motion compensation is compensate for movement of blocks of current frame. Inter-prediction Encoding is always the main bottleneck in high-quality streaming applications. Therefore, in real-time streaming applications, dedicated hardware for executing Inter-prediction is required. In this paper, we studied a motion estimator(ME) for H.264/AVC. The designed motion estimator is based on 2-D systolic array and it connects processing elements for fast SAD(Sum of Absolute Difference) calculation in parallel. By providing different path for the upper and lower lesion of each reference data and adjusting the input sequence, consecutive calculation for motion estimation is executed without pipeline stall. With data reuse technique, it reduces memory access, and there is no extra delay for finding optimal partitions and motion vectors. The motion estimator supports variable-block size and takes 328 cycles for macro-block calculation. The proposed architecture is local memory-free different from paper [6] using local memory. This motion estimation encoder can be applicable to real-time video processing.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.28-35
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• 2010

The variable block size motion estimation (ME) and compensation (MC) using multiple reference frames is adopted in H.264/AVC to improve coding efficiency. However, the computational complexity for ME/MC increases proportional to the number of reference frames and variable blocks. In this paper, we propose a new efficient reference frame selection algorithm to reduce the complexity while keeping the visual quality. First, a motion vector reference map is constructed by SAD of $4{\times}4$ block unit for multi reference frames. Next, the variable block size motion estimation and motion compensation is performed according to the motion vector reference map. The computer simulation results show that the average loss of BDPSNR is -0.01dB, the increment of BDBR is 0.27%, and the encoding time is reduced by 38% compared with the original method for H.264/AVC.

• Journal of The Institute of Information and Telecommunication Facilities Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 2011

This research presents an adaptive fast motion estimation (ME) computation on the stage of uneven multi-hexagon grid search (UMHGS) algorithm included in an unsymmetrical-cross multi-hexagon-grid search (UMHexagonS) in H.264 standard. The proposed adaptive method is based on statistical analysis and previously obtained motion vectors to reduce the computational complexity of ME. For this purpose, the algorithm is decomposed into three processes: skipping, terminating, and reducing search areas. Skipping and terminating are determined by the statistical analysis of the collected minimum SAD (sum of absolute difference) and the search area is constrained by the slope of previously obtained motion vectors. Simulation results show that 13%-23% of ME time can be reduced compared with UMHexagonS, while still maintaining a reasonable PSNR (peak signal-to-noise ratio) and average bitrates.

• The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.2271-2280
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• 1999

In this paper, a variable motion estimation scheme based on HBMA(Hierarchical Block Matching Algorithm) to improve the performance and to reduce heavy computational and transmission load, is presented. The proposed algorithm is composed of four steps. First, block activity for each block is defined using the edge information of differential image between two sequential images, and then average block activity of the present image is found by taking the mean of block activity. Secondly, camera pan compensation is carried out, according to the average activity of the image, in the hierarchical pyramid structure constructed by wavelet transform. Next, the LUT classifying each block into one among Moving, No Moving, Semi-Moving Block according to the block activity compensated camera pan is obtained. Finally, as varying the block size and adaptively selecting the initial search layer and the search range referring to LUT, the proposed variable HBMA can effectively carries out fast motion estimation in the hierarchical pyramid structure. The cost function needed above-mentioned each step is only the block activity defined by the edge information of the differential image in the sequential images.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.20-22
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• 2007

The H.264/AVC standard developed by the joint Video Team (JVT) provides better coding efficiency than previous standards. The new emerging H.264/AVC employs variable block size motion estimation using multiple reference frame with 1/4-pel MV(Motion Vector) accuracy. These techniques are a important feature to accomplish higher coding efficiency. However, these techniques are increased overall computational complexity. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes advanced fast mode decision suited for variable block size by classifying inter mode based on Rate Distortion Optimization(RDO) technique. Proposed algorithm is going to use to implement H/W structure for fast mode decision. The experimental results shows that the proposed algorithm provides significant reduction computational complexity without any noticeable coding loss and additional computation. Entire computational complexity is decreased about 30%.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1187-1193
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• 2014

This paper presents an effective motion estimation to improve the performance of the motion compensated temporal filtering (MCTF) which is a core part of the wavelet-based scalable video coding. The proposed scheme makes the motion vector field uniform by the modified median operation and the search strategies using adjacent motion vectors, in order to enhance the pixel connectivity which is significantly relevant to the performance of the MCTF. Moreover, the motion estimation with variable block sizes that reflects the features of frames is introduced for further correlation improvement of the motion vector field. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed method reduces the decomposed energy on the temporal high frequency subband frame up to 30.33% in terms of variance compared to the case of the full search with fixed block sizes.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.822-833
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• 1996

The video coding for very low bit rate has recently received considerable attention, but conventional block based transform coding schemes suffer from the blocking effect for the constraints of bit rates. In this paper, we present a video coding sysem suing multi-resolution motion estimation/compensation with variable size block(VMRME/C) and multi-resolution vector quantization(MRVQ) in wavelet transform domain for very low bit rate coding. It is shown that the presented scheme has better performance in the peak signal-to-nose ratio(RSNR) by 0.2-0.6 dB as well as subjective quality than that of conventional block based transform video coding techniques(especially, H. 263 which is DCT based video coding).