Enhanced motion compensated deinterlacing algorithm

This study proposes an enhanced version of the five-field motion compensated deinterlacing algorithm. The proposed method applies bi-directional motion estimation using two previous and two subsequent fields. It uses an array of flags to determine if the missing pixels of two previous frames are calculated from original pixels or pre-filtered data. If the pixels are calculated from pre-filtered data, they are not used for deinterlacing in order to decrease error propagation. A new method is also proposed to recognise the presence of fast and non-uniform motions and to prevent the artefacts they can cause. The method calculates two motion vectors within the same parity fields and checks their directions to determine whether they are associated with a uniform motion or not. Motion compensation is refined in a way that pre-filtered data of subsequent fields are never used for missing line calculation. Experimental results based on objective and subjective criteria show that the proposed algorithm improves vertical resolution, prevents artefacts caused by fast and non-uniform motions and achieves better overall image quality than previously reported methods.