Improved hierarchical search block matching algorithm by using multiple motion vector candidates

The authors describe a hierarchical search block matching algorithm capable of handling large motion in real time motion estimation for existing video compression standards. The algorithm uses multiple motion vector candidates based on an interframe difference measure and a spatial motion-field correlation, respectively. In MPEG-2 application, the encoder adopting the proposed algorithm provides nearly the same performance as the conventional encoder adopting the full search block matching algorithm, with only 0.9% computational complexity for motion estimation.