Data reuse-based fast subpixel motion estimation for high efficiency video coding

Abstract

A data reuse-based fast subpixel motion estimation (SME) method for high efficiency video coding (HEVC) is proposed. Since SME is one of the most computation-intensive tools in the encoder process, conventional research on SME focused on the reduction of the computational complexity. The applied data-reuse architecture for the design of fast SME substantially reduces computational complexity at the cost of a reasonable increase in memory bandwidth. The core of the proposed data-reuse method is the replacement of redundant computations in SME with the memory access operations of previously computed values. The proposed method was tested in the latest video coding standard, HEVC, with experimental results showing a reduction in operational complexity of similar to 64.14%, and a reduction in encoding time of similar to 56.13%, compared to the SME in the HEVC reference encoder.