Fast multiple reference frame selection method using inter-mode correlation

In this paper, we propose a fast multiple reference frame selection method for motion estimation and compensation in H.264 video coding. Using the property that an optimal reference frame has the statistical characteristics, the motion estimation of small block size is estimated from the motion estimation of the larger block size. Simulation results show that the proposal method decreased the computations about 52%. Without the sacrifice of coding performance, comparing to the H.264 multiple reference picture coding.