Predictive motion-field segmentation for image sequence coding

A technique is presented for improving motion field accuracy, while transmitting the same amount of motion information as standard block-based methods (a small amount of additional side information is needed). The approach is developed within the framework of standard block-based methods, but the constraints of the block-based motion field model are relaxed. The method improves motion compensation along boundaries of moving objects by segmenting the motion field of previous frames of the sequence, and using the segmentation to predict the location of motion-field discontinuities in the current frame. Simulations show significant improvement in the accuracy of the motion-compensated frame compared with the standard block-based method and a corresponding decrease in the bit rate required to achieved a fixed image quality