A block motion vector estimation using pattern based pixel decimation

A new pixel decimation technique based on a set of the pixel patterns for block motion vector estimation is presented. For uniform pixel decimation, regular patterns are used for computing the matching criterion to estimate the motion vector. The results can easily be misled by some image textures. Thus, in this paper, we define some "most representative pixel patterns" and make the selection according to the image content in each block for the matching criterion. Our approach can efficiently compensate the drawback in uniform pixel decimation. Computer simulations show that this technique is close to the performance of the full search, and has a significant reduction on computational complexity as compared with other pixel decimation algorithms in the literature. Also, it is more convenient for hardware realization as compared with the fully adaptive pixel decimation.