Block Matching Algorithms for Motion Estimation - A Comparison Study

Motion estimation procedures are employed in order to achieve reductions in the amount of resources required for data retention and therefore alleviate transmission demands of steaming digital video sequences across Information System infrastructures. The process comes at high computational expense, however there are a number of techniques in which attempt to expedite processing times for the compression of video streams by increasing the efficiency of resource utilisation through a minimisation of superfluous calculations incurred by imprudent video compression applications. A variety of fast, block-based matching algorithms have been developed to address such issues within the motion estimation process and to also exploit the assumptions made in regards to the behaviours exhibited by distortion distributions. This investigation will analyse a number of such methodologies through a literature review of their accompanying publications and will enable the development comparative analysis based on various performance indicators.