A fast full search block matching algorithm for MPEG-4 video

In MPEG-4, motion vectors on both 16×16 macroblocks and 8×8 blocks could be used. We propose a block matching algorithm which can find both of them with small computational complexity. It is shown that the number of operations for motion estimation (ME) can be reduced by an expanded successive elimination algorithm (SEA) while maintaining the same accuracy of the full search ME algorithm. In the SEA, the efficiency of reducing the number of ME operations mostly depends upon the appropriate selection of an initial motion vector for searching. We first propose the method of the initial motion vector selection for SEA. We then expand the traditional SEA for the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 for MPEG-4 in which both 16×16 macroblocks and 8×8 blocks are used. In consequence of our simulation, the significance of the proposed method is verified