Motion Vector Estimation Search using Hexagon-Diamond Pattern for Video Sequences, Grid Point and Block-Based

Grid and block-based motion vector estimation techniques are proposed for motion tracking in video sequences. The grid technique is referred to the hexagon-diamond pattern. While, block-based technique is referred to 16 × 16 pixels of blocks in a single frame in video sequences. The hexagon and diamond pattern is applied onto the 16 × 16 pixels blocks in a single frame for motion tracking purposes in video sequences. The hexagon grid pattern will conduct a search to capture the motion in a particular block of the hexagon region before the diamond grid pattern takes place for the fine search. The diamond grid pattern provides accuracy to obtain the best grid vector coordinate for motion tracking purposes. The hexagon-diamond grid vector coordinate can be used to determine whether the object is moving toward the horizontal or vertical plane. The information determined at grid vector coordinate can be used as a reference when referring to the previous frame in video sequence processing. The grid vector coordinate will help to determine the area of interest to be examined based on the coordinate obtained. Besides the grid vector estimation, the Point Signal Noise-to-Ratio (PSNR) is also applied to measure the quality of the video

A Hybrid Texture Coding Method for Fast Texture Mapping

An efficient texture compression method is proposed based on a block matching process between the current block and the previously encoded blocks. Texture mapping is widely used to improve the quality of rendering results in real-time applications. For fast texture mapping, it is important to find an optimal trade-off between compression efficiency and computational complexity. Low-complexity methods (e.g., ETC1 and DXT1) have often been adopted in real-time rendering applications because conventional compression methods (e.g., JPEG) achieve a high compression ratio at the cost of high complexity. We propose a block matching-based compression method that can achieve a higher compression ratio than ETC1 and DXT1 while maintaining computational complexity lower than that of JPEG. Through a comparison between the proposed method and existing compression methods, we confirm our expectations on the performance of the proposed method

A Three-Point Directional Search Block Matching Algorithm

This paper proposes compact directional asymmetric search patterns, which we have named as three-point directional search (TDS). In most fast search motion estimation algorithms, a symmetric search pattern is usually set at the minimum block distortion point at each step of the search. The design of the symmetrical pattern in these algorithms relies primarily on the assumption that the direction of convergence is equally alike in each direction with respect to the search center. Therefore, the monotonic property of real-world video sequences is not properly used by these algorithms. The strategy of TDS is to keep searching for the minimum block distortion point in the most probable directions, unlike the previous fast search motion estimation algorithms where all the directions are checked. Therefore, the proposed method significantly reduces the number of search points for locating a motion vector. Compared to conventional fast algorithms, the proposed method has the fastest search speed and most satisfactory PSNR values for all test sequences

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

Video Watermarking Based on Neural Networks

International audienc

Fast Motion Estimation Algorithm using Hybrid Search Patterns for Video Streaming Application

The objective of the paper is to develop new block matching Motion Estimation (ME) algorithm using hybrid search patterns along the direction of best match. The search efficiency for sequences with fast motions and high resolutions is improved by proposing New Cross Diagonal-Hexagon Search (NCDHS) algorithm which involves a novel multi half-hexagon grid global search pattern and a cross diagonal-hexagon local search pattern. The new search pattern enables the proposed algorithm to perform better search using 9.068 search points on an average, to obtain optimal motion vector with slight improvement in quality. This inturn reduces ME Time upto 50.11%, 47.12%, 32.99% and 43.28% on average when compared to the existing Diamond Search (DS), Hexagon Search (HS), New Cross Hexagon Search (NHEXS) and Enhanced Diamond Search (EDS) algorithms respectively. The novelty of the algorithm is further achieved by applying the algorithm proposed for live streaming application. The NCDHS algorithm is run on two MATLAB sessions on the same computer by establishing the connection using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) /Internet Protocol (IP) network. The ME Time obtained is 14.5986 seconds for a block size 16x16, is less when compared to existing algorithms and that makes the NCDHS algorithm suitable for real time streaming application

Adaptive Diamond Search Algorithm for Motion Estimation

Implementation of the Block Matching Algorithm (BMA) in Motion Estimation (ME) has been widely used in video encoder due to its simplicity and high compression efficiency. Many fast search methods of BMAs are being introduced to increase the efficiency  of the ME  process. This paper proposed a new algorithm, namely Adaptive Diamond Search Algorithm (ADS) which employs three different search patterns for its two main stages. At the initial step, an additional step is added to a predetermined static block to further speed up the search process as it is beneficial to small motion video sequence contents. The performances of the ADS are then compared with three selected established algorithms, namely the Full Search (FS), Diamond Search (DS) and Hexagon-Diamond Search (HDS). Based on the simulation result, the proposed algorithm yields a very good video quality performance with fewer search points compared with other algorithms

A Motion Estimation based Algorithm for Encoding Time Reduction in HEVC

High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is a video compression standard that offers 50% more efficiency at the expense of high encoding time contrasted with the H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard. The encoding time must be reduced to satisfy the needs of real-time applications. This paper has proposed the Multi- Level Resolution Vertical Subsampling (MLRVS) algorithm to reduce the encoding time. The vertical subsampling minimizes the number of Sum of Absolute Difference (SAD) computations during the motion estimation process. The complexity reduction algorithm is also used for fast coding the coefficients of the quantised block using a flag decision. Two distinct search patterns are suggested: New Cross Diamond Diamond (NCDD) and New Cross Diamond Hexagonal (NCDH) search patterns, which reduce the time needed to locate the motion vectors. In this paper, the MLRVS algorithm with NCDD and MLRVS algorithm with NCDH search patterns are simulated separately and analyzed. The results show that the encoding time of the encoder is decreased by 55% with MLRVS algorithm using NCDD search pattern and 56% with MLRVS using NCDH search pattern compared to HM16.5 with Test Zone (TZ) search algorithm. These results are achieved with a slight increase in bit rate and negligible deterioration in output video quality

Block Matching Algorithms for the Estimation of Motion in Image Sequences: Analysis

Several video coding standards and techniques have been introduced for multimedia applications, particularly the h.26x series for video processing. These standards employ motion estimation processing to reduce the amount of data that is required to store or transmit the video. The motion estimation process is an inextricable part of the video coding as it removes the temporal redundancy between successive frames of video sequences. This paper is about these motion estimation algorithms, their search procedures, complexity, advantages, and limitations. A survey of motion estimation algorithms including full search, many fast, and fast full search block-based algorithms has been presented. An evaluation of up-to-date motion estimation algorithms, based on several empirical results on several test video sequences, is presented as well