Smooth constrained block matching criterion for motion estimation

In this paper, a novel and efficient criterion for block matching motion estimation is presented. The proposed criterion is to enhance the conventional mean absolute difference (MAD) scheme with a new smoothness constraint on the residue block. The objective is to reduce the bit rate for encoding the residue image without any degradation of the reconstructed image quality. Simulation results show that by applying the new criterion in motion estimation, both the improvement in peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and the reduction in bit rate up to 4.3% can be achieved compared to MAD.