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Complexity reduction of test zonal search for fast motion estimation in uni-prediction of High Efficiency Video Coding

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Abstract

The complexity of motion estimation in the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard is very high as it uses a number of prediction block sizes. The test zonal search (TZS) mechanism is used as motion estimation algorithm in the fast search mode of HM encoder, the reference software for HEVC. In this paper, we present schemes for reducing the complexity of the TZS algorithm for uni-prediction in HEVC. The proposed mechanisms help in reducing complexity of grid, raster and refinement search stages of TZS. The performance of the proposed mechanisms is tested independently and also combined in the fast search mode of HM-16.18. The motion estimation time and the number of search points in the combined algorithm are reduced by 68.14% and 77.10% with a BD-rate of 0.30% and a BD-PSNR of \(-0.007\) dB in comparison with the original fast search mode in the low-delay P main profile. The proposed complexity reduction schemes are compared with those adopted in other recently proposed fast motion estimation algorithms and the performance of the proposed scheme is found to be superior in terms of the reduction in motion estimation time.

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  1. Department of E & ECE, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, 721302, India

    K. C. Ravi Chandra Varma & Sudipta Mahapatra

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  1. K. C. Ravi Chandra Varma
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  2. Sudipta Mahapatra
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Correspondence to K. C. Ravi Chandra Varma.

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Varma, K.C.R.C., Mahapatra, S. Complexity reduction of test zonal search for fast motion estimation in uni-prediction of High Efficiency Video Coding. J Real-Time Image Proc 18, 511–524 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11554-020-00983-y

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