Low-bit motion estimation with edge enhanced images for lowpower MPEG encoder

This paper proposes a method for improving the image quality when we use low-bit motion estimation (ME) using linear quantization. By using edge enhanced images for quantization, we can increase the accuracy of the low-bit ME and improve the image quality. It is known that using low-bit images for ME is effective on saving power but it slightly degrades image quality. The quality of the encoded image depends on the thresholds for data quantization, and algorithms for determining thresholds are studied. The proposed method uses linear quantization, which simply truncates the least significant bits. This method is simple without any complicated threshold calculations, and the image quality improves as much as the methods with threshold calculations. To evaluate the effectiveness, we simulate results for image quality and estimate the power consumption using synthesis results from a VHDL model motion estimator