A Survey on Block Matching Algorithms for Video Coding

Block matching algorithm (BMA) for motion estimation (ME) is the heart to many motion-compensated video-coding techniques/standards, such as ISO MPEG-1/2/4 and ITU-T H.261/262/263/264/265, to reduce the temporal redundancy between different frames. During the last three decades, hundreds of fast block matching algorithms have been proposed. The shape and size of search patterns in motion estimation will influence more on the searching speed and quality of performance. This article provides an overview of the famous block matching algorithms and compares their computational complexity and motion prediction quality

Hardware acceleration architectures for MPEG-Based mobile video platforms: a brief overview

This paper presents a brief overview of past and current hardware acceleration (HwA) approaches that have been proposed for the most computationally intensive compression tools of the MPEG-4 standard. These approaches are classified based on their historical evolution and architectural approach. An analysis of both evolutionary and functional classifications is carried out in order to speculate on the possible trends of the HwA architectures to be employed in mobile video platforms

Energy-efficient acceleration of MPEG-4 compression tools

We propose novel hardware accelerator architectures for the most computationally demanding algorithms of the MPEG-4 video compression standard-motion estimation, binary motion estimation (for shape coding), and the forward/inverse discrete cosine transforms (incorporating shape adaptive modes). These accelerators have been designed using general low-energy design philosophies at the algorithmic/architectural abstraction levels. The themes of these philosophies are avoiding waste and trading area/performance for power and energy gains. Each core has been synthesised targeting TSMC 0.09 μm TCBN90LP technology, and the experimental results presented in this paper show that the proposed cores improve upon the prior art

A novel hexagonal search algorithm for fast block matching motion estimation

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Efficient hardware architectures for MPEG-4 core profile

Efficient hardware acceleration architectures are proposed for the most demandingMPEG-4 core profile algorithms, namely; texture motion estimation (TME), binary motion estimation (BME)and the shape adaptive discrete cosine transform (SA-DCT). The proposed ME designs may also be used for H.264, since both architectures can handle variable block sizes. Both ME architectures employ early termination techniques that reduce latency and save needless memory accesses and power consumption. They also use a pixel subsampling technique to facilitate parallelism, while balancing the computational load. The BME datapath also saves operations by using Run Length Coded (RLC) pixel addressing. The SA-DCT module has a re-configuring multiplier-less serial datapath using adders and multiplexers only to improve area and power. The SA-DCT packing steps are done using a minimal switching addressing scheme with guarded evaluation. All three modules have been synthesised targeting the WildCard-II FPGA benchmarking platform adopted by the MPEG-4 Part9 reference hardware group

Prediction error image coding using a modified stochastic vector quantization scheme

The objective of this paper is to provide an efficient and yet simple method to encode the prediction error image of video sequences, based on a stochastic vector quantization (SVQ) approach that has been modified to cope with the intrinsic decorrelated nature of the prediction error image of video signals. In the SVQ scheme, the codewords are generated by stochastic techniques instead of being generated by a training set representative of the expected input image as is normal use in VQ. The performance of the scheme is shown for the particular case of segmentation-based video coding although the technique can be also applied to motion-compensated hybrid coding schemes.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A robust motion estimation and segmentation approach to represent moving images with layers

The paper provides a robust representation of moving images based on layers. To that goal, we have designed efficient motion estimation and segmentation techniques by affine model fitting suitable for the construction of layers. Layered representations, originally introduced by Wang and Adelson (see IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol.3, no.5, p.625-38, 1994) are important in several applications. In particular they are very appropriate for object tracking, object manipulation and content-based scalability which are among the main functionalities of the future MPEG-4 standard. In addition a variety of examples are provided that give a deep insight into the performance bounds of the representation of moving images using layers.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version