Inter-temporal vector prediction for motion estimation in scalable video coding

Motion estimation plays an important role for the coding performance achieved in current video coding schemes. However, the computational burden of motion estimation algorithms is often high, especially if the temporal distance between pictures is large. We describe a predictive motion estimation algorithm that takes advantage of motion correlation found specifically in scalable video coding using open-loop hierarchical B pictures or motion-compensated temporal filtering. The simulation results illustrate that our proposed algorithm significantly reduces the computational complexity of motion estimation while maintaining objective and visual quality almost identical to an exhaustive full search algorithm.