Using GPU for fast Block-Matching

On the one hand, basic PCs include by default more and more powerful GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) that sometimes even outperforms CPU (Central Processing Unit) for some specific tasks. On the other hand, video processing are more and more useful and required for numerous emerging services and applications but is often too computational expensive to reach real time. Within the context of GPGPU (General Purpose GPU), we propose in this paper a possible implementation of a block-matching algorithm. Some significant results are obtained in terms of acceleration and quality. Based on our experiments on Block-Matching within the context of video compression, we finally underline some existing limitations of using GPUs beyond graphics for image and video processing even if this concept remains attractive.