Improved Hexagon-Based Searching Algorithm for Fast Motion Estimation

In H.264 video coding standard, in order to get a higher compression ratio, H.264 adopts hexagon-based search (HEXBS) algorithm to perform motion estimation which has a large calculation. Compared with Full Search algorithm, it reduces the searching time obviously, but it still takes the most time of compression in encoding. Based on the HEXBS, this paper improved the searching algorithm. Our experimental results substantially justify the merits of the proposed algorithm.