A low complexity motion estimation algorithm suitable for frame rate conversion

Frame rate conversion requires interpolation of image frames at time instances to increase the frame rate. In this paper we propose a new fast algorithm for block motion vector(MV) estimation based on the temporal and spatial correlations. Firstly, every nine neighboring blocks are treated as a macro-block; full search block matching algorithm is used to estimate the motion vector of the center block Then the motion vectors of the remaining blocks are estimated by using a simplified process. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can obtain good image quality with reduced computation complexity compared to conventional motion estimation such as full search algorithm.