Search window size decision for motion estimation algorithm in H.264 video coder

In this paper, we propose, an innovative algorithm for reducing the complexity of the motion estimation (ME) module used in standard video compression applications. The idea is based on applying a motion detection algorithm for the decision of search window sizes in the motion estimation. The motion detection algorithm is based on blob coloring [D.H. Ballard and C. Brown, 1982] over sub-sampled binary images generated by block wise threshold image difference. This solution decreases the encoder complexity thanks to the reduction of SAD (sum of absolute difference) calculations especially in low complexity sequences like video-surveillance and video-telephony ones. The selected video compression algorithm for validating the proposed approach is H.264 [October 2002] that represent the state of the art of video codec.