A fast octagon-based search algorithm for motion estimation

Fast motion estimation technique plays a very important role in video compression standard. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm using octagon-based search (OCTBS) pattern for fast block motion estimation. The proposed OCTBS algorithm can find a motion vector with fewer search points than the diamond search (DS) algorithm. The speedup gain of the OCTBS method over the DS algorithm is more striking for finding large motion vectors. Experimental results justify the performance of the OCTBS algorithm compared with several other popular search algorithms (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.