A codirectionality assisted motion estimation algorithm

Block-based motion estimation (ME) is the most computationally intensive part of a video encoder. In this paper a new genetic based search algorithm is proposed to speed up the process and find the best matching block. In the proposed method, the fitness function is compared with a predefined threshold to stop performing unnecessary computations. The initial population of the genetic algorithm is selected based on the spatial and temporal correlation among motion vectors. Considering the codirectionality among neighbouring vectors, we develop our algorithm. Since many blocks in a frame can be regarded as stationary or quasi-stationary the suggested initial population involves these kinds of blocks. Simulation results on popular test video sequences indicate higher performance of the proposed algorithm compared to the latest fast motion estimation algorithm.