Content-based motion estimation with extended temporal-spatial analysis

In adaptive motion estimation, spatial-temporal correlation based motion type inference has been recognized as an effective way to guide the motion estimation strategy adjustment according to video contents. However, the complexity and the reliability of those methods remain two crucial problems. In this paper, a motion vector field model is introduced as the basis for a new spatial-temporal correlation based motion type inference method. For each block, Full Search with Adaptive Search Window (ASW) and Three Step Search (TSS), as two search strategy candidates, can be employed alternatively. Simulation results show that the proposed method can constantly reduce the dynamic computational cost to as low as 3% to 4% of that of Full Search (FS), while remaining a closer approximation to FS in terms of visual quality than other fast algorithms for various video sequences. Due to its efficiency and reliability, this method is expected to be a favorable contribution to the mobile video communication where low power real-time video coding is necessary.