2-D motion estimation with hierarchical content based meshes

Two-dimensional mesh-based models provide a good alternative to motion estimation and compensation. The estimation of the best motion vectors at the node-point motion vectors is a challenging task. To this effect, Nakaya et al. (1994), proposed a hexagonal matching procedure. Toklu et al. (1996) improved the hexagonal search algorithm in terms of both motion estimation accuracy and computational complexity by employing a hierarchy of regular meshes. Recognizing the limitations of regular meshes, Van Beek et al. (1999), extended Toklu's work by utilizing content-based meshes. Here, we provide an alternative hierarchical motion estimation method with content-based meshes where hierarchical representations are employed for images as well as meshes in order to provide further improvements in computational complexity as well as motion accuracy.