Fast motion estimation scheme for real time multimedia streaming with H.264

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel fast motion estimation algorithm based on successive elimination algorithm (SEA), which can dramatically reduce complexity of the variable block size motion estimation by removing the unnecessary computation of SAD in H.264 encoder. The proposed method, which accumulates current sum norms and precomputed SAD for the bigger block sizes than 4x4 drives tighter bound in the inequality than an ordinary SEA depending on the availability of SAD. Experimental results explain that our method reduces computation complexity. In addition, the proposed method is an extended version of the rate constrained block matching for variable block-sized applications. It surely works on variable block-based motion estimation with just a little degradation.