Adaptive search window size algorithm for fast motion estimation in H.264/AVC standard

H.264/AVC is a new recommendation for moving picture coding, in which a lot of new techniques are used for improving encoding efficiency and reducing the bit-rate. However, it involves an exhaustive motion search across multiple block sizes and multiple reference frames leading to a linear increase in processing time. Although, the encoding quality is improved, the complexity of the encoder and computational cost are increased at the same time. We reduce the computational cost by reducing the search space without significant loss in quality. Results show that there is at least 90% reduction in computation with a maximum loss of 1.4dB.