An efficient search method for binary-based motion estimation

Motion estimation using one-bit transform and two-bit transform reduces the complexity for computation of matching error; however, the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) is degraded. Modified 1BT (M1BT) and modified 2BT (M2BT) have been proposed in [5,6] to compensate degraded PSNR by adding conditional local search. However, these algorithms require many additional search points in fast moving sequences with a block size of 16×16. This paper provides more efficient search method by preparing candidate blocks using the number of non-matching points (NNMP) than the conditional local search. With this NNMP-based search, we can easily obtain candidate blocks with small NNMP and efficiently search final motion vector. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm not only reduces computational complexity, but also improves PSNR on average compared with conventional search algorithm used in M1BT, M2BT and AM2BT.