Improved motion estimation algorithm with post processing and its application in motion-compensated interpolation

摘要

Abstract: Motion-compensated interpolation has severalapplications in digital image processing like fieldfrequency conversion of different television standards,image coding with the frame skipping method, and so on.Differing from a motion-compensated (MC) predictivealgorithm which aims to minimize the prediction errorsthat must be coded and transmitted, the motionestimator for MC interpolation must provide reliablemotion vectorfields which closely approximate theactual motions in scenes in order to reconstruct themissed images in the receiver end. Generally speaking,motion vectorfields obtained by the conventional motionestimation algorithms are not good enough for theapplication of MC interpolation. In this paper, a newmotion estimation algorithm including smoothnessconstraints is proposed, and its application to MCinterpolation of skipped images in the environment of alow bit-rate codec is investigated. The simulationresults show that motion vectorfields obtained by theproposed motion estimation algorithm are morehomogeneous and more reliable than those obtained bythe conventional algorithms, and the quality ofinterpolated images is substantially improved for theexamined sequence. !8