MOTION ESTIMATION USING MINIMUM BIT RATE CRITERION

摘要

A new motion estimation technique is described herein which directly detects the number of bits required to be transmitted to convey the difference between the predicted video data and the current video data, where a fewer number of bits used to convey the difference corresponds to better motion estimation. The search criterion for the best estimate of movement of a block is the minimum number of bits for conveying this difference instead of minimizing the mean squared error (MSE) or mean average difference (MAD). Thus, complex calculations involving MSD or MAD are avoided. The motion estimator of the preferred embodiment uses a look-up table to convert motion compensated difference signals for a block of pels into the number of bits required to be transmitted to convey the difference signals. When it has been determined that a certain estimated displacement of a block would require the fewest number of bits to be transmitted, that displacement is selected as the best estimate, and the corresponding motion vector is transmitted along with a motion compensated difference signal containing the fewest number of bits.