Towards an efficient high quality picture-rate up-converter

Motion estimation algorithms play a key role in picture-rate up-conversion. To realise high quality interpolated images, while keeping the processing requirements low, we analyse the following parameters of the motion estimation algorithm: the number of motion estimation iterations per input image pair and the image scanning order of individual iterations. Furthermore, we tackle the issue of the optimal selection of the motion vector candidates. The selected motion estimation algorithm is the three-dimensional recursive search (3DRS) block matcher that offers a smooth and accurate motion vector field at relatively low computational cost.