A predictive parallel motion estimation algorithm for digital image processing

An efficient block matching algorithm (BMA) for motion estimation is presented. This BMA exploits motion correlation of neighbor blocks in the temporal direction to reduce the search area. Instead of finding the 2D motion vector directly, this BMA finds two 1D displacements in parallel on two axes independently within the reduced search area. Simulation results show that this algorithm can rival conventional BMAs for performance. The hardware-oriented features of this BMA guarantee that it is more suitable for the hardware realization of a VLSI motion estimator.<
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