Advanced Motion Vector Smoothing For Frame Rate Up-Conversion

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new motion vector smoothing algorithm to be used for motion-compensated frame rate up conversion (FRUC). The FRUC techniques are used to enhance the visual quality of the low frame rate video on display. Motion estimation process searches a motion vector which refers the relative block position where it has the minimum sum of difference (SAD) between the reference and target block. By using the motion vectors obtained from motion estimation process, the new frames can be interpolated. Because of plane region and repeated pattern of the background, motion estimation sometimes produces outliers. To detect and correct the outliers of motion vectors, motion vector smoothing process is utilized. In identifying the motion vector outliers, the proposed algorithm uses distance of neighboring motion vectors as weights for producing corrected motion vector. The experimental result shows that the proposed algorithm gives the best objective and subjective results.