Frame rate up-conversion with true motion estimation and adaptive motion vector refinement

Frame rate up-conversion is a useful post processing technique to enhance the visual quality of low frame rate video materials. In this paper, we propose a novel frame rate up-conversion algorithm utilizing true motion estimation and adaptive motion vector refinement. First, block-matching algorithm (BMA) based on an efficient motion similarity constrained criterion is employed to track the true motion between adjacent frames and produce a preliminary intermediate motion vector field (MVF).We then classify the intermediate motion vectors into two categories, isolated group and connected group adaptively by motion clustering. A smooth resampling method is later applied to connected group to obtain consistent motion, while isolated motion vectors are re-estimated with bilateral edge-weighted block decomposition (BEWBD). Finally, overlapped block motion compensation (OBMC) is adopted to interpolate the intermediate frame. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms conventional methods both subjectively and objectively.