A novel block matching algorithm for motion vector estimation

Motion vector estimation is the most computationally expensive activity in video compression. We developed a searching algorithm that performs better than the existing popular algorithms in terms of both computational complexity and video quality. To find out the motion vector of a block in the current frame, we utilize the motion vector of the corresponding block at the previous frame, which potentially helps us to jump to an area where the probability of finding a close match is high. After this step, we apply a new irregular diamond search pattern (IDSP) that is capable of moving in all the directions in the searching area using less number of block comparisons. The performance of the proposed algorithm for standard video sequences has been studied. The experimental results show that the number of block comparisons is significantly reduced in our algorithm while the quality of video sequences remains as good as that of the others.