A distributed adaptive block matching algorithm: DIS-ABMA

Variable block size algorithms for motion estimation, like the Adaptive Block Matching Algorithm (ABMA) [10], have been proposed to better match to "objects in motion" compared to the classical BMA [4, 2]. However, the variable block size grid derivation and the related motion estimation relies on a regularization process which implies heavy iterative and inter-dependent computation. Though the paral-lelization of the BMA is si gh forward, the ABMA needs a deeper analysis before its implementation in a distributed environment : this is the goal of this paper. We first designed a modelization of the motion detection of ABMA. This model can lead to several different distributed versions. A specific distributed model, with one master and several slaves, is then described. An implementation of this model has been realized (in C++, using the PVM platform). Experimentations show a linear speedup with respect to the number of processors.