Mesh-based decoder-side motion estimation

Current video coding standards like H.264|AVC perform a block-based motion estimation and compensation at the encoder to exploit temporal dependencies between consecutive frames. Current research proved that motion compensation can also be done profitably at the decoder. In this so-called decoder-side motion estimation (DSME), frames are interpolated at the decoder and inserted into the reference buffer as additional information for prediction. To gather the motion information for compensation, the current approach is based on a block matching algorithm estimating one motion vector for each block of the frame to be interpolated. Therefore, only translational movement is compensated. We evaluate the applicability of a mesh-based motion compensation to DSME which models affine motion in each patch of the mesh and is able to compensate camera zooming or panning, object rotation, or object deformation.