Sorting-based partial distortion search Experimental results: In our simulation, we used two famous sequences

algorithm for motion estimation of Salesman and Football that have slow and fast motions, respectively. The
size of each frame of these two sequences is 352
240 pixels, uniformly
W.G. Hong and T.M. Oh quantised to eight bits. The block size and the search range used for our
simulation are 16
16  7, respectively. The sum of absolute difference is
A fast motion-estimation algorithm based on partial block distortion employed as the block matching criterion. Our scheme employs 32 steps to
for sorted significant pixels is proposed. The proposed algorithm can perform the comparison for a candidate block. In the first step, eight pixels
obtain very accurate motion vectors with a reduced computational are used for obtaining the first partial distortion, and the number of pixels is
load. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme gives the increased by eight pixels as the step is continued. The first 80 frames of
same performance as the full search, while it is about 6–10 times faster each sequence are used for the performance comparison of the FS, SEA,
than the full search. partial norm based search algorithm (PNSA) [2], progressive partial norm
matching algorithm (PPNMA) [3] and NPDS.
Introduction: It is well known that the full search (FS) is an optimal
solution for obtaining the best estimate of motion vectors. However,
the FS is very computational intensive for real-time implementation.
To reduce the computational complexity of the FS, many fast search
algorithms have been proposed by limiting the number of search
points. These algorithms can reduce the computation time signifi-
cantly, but there are higher matching errors compared with the FS.
Recently, some novel algorithms such as successive elimination algo-
rithm (SEA) [1] and its improved versions [2, 3] have been proposed
for more accurate prediction. They greatly reduce the computation
requirement while providing the same results as that of the FS.
In this Letter, a fast motion-estimation algorithm, called sorting-
based partial distortion search (SPDS), is proposed. Experimental
results show that the proposed scheme not only reduces computational
complexity, but also provides the same results as the FS.

Partial distortion search based on sorted significant pixels: In partial

distortion search algorithms, partial distortions are used for prede-
fined pixels of a block for the block distortion comparison. For
example, the normalised partial distortion search (NPDS) [4]
compares the normalised value of the partial distortion for evenly
sampled pixels with the mean absolute distortion (MAD) of the
current minimum block. Suppose that the block size is M
M and
D( p) is the partial distortion for p pixels of a candidate block. Then
the normalised partial distortion in NPDS is defined as: Fig. 1 Average partial distortions for sorted significant pixels and evenly
sampled pixels for Football
M2
DNORM ¼ Dð pÞ ð1Þ
p Table 1 shows the performance comparison in terms of average mean
where DNORM can be updated and becomes gradually closer to the square error (MSE) between the original frame and the estimated frame.
MAD according to the number of pixels. If DNORM of a candidate is It is seen that the proposed scheme (SPDS) provides the same or lower
greater than the MAD of the current minimum block, this candidate results compared with the FS, SEA, PNSA and PPNMA, whereas the
is rejected. Otherwise, DNORM is recomputed with increased pixels, and MSE of NPDS is somewhat higher than that of the FS. A comparison of
the comparison is repeated until the number of pixels ( p) reaches M 2. the computational complexity in terms of average operations (addition,
Since the difference between DNORM and the MAD of the candidate subtraction and absolution) per motion vector estimation is presented in
always exists, NPDS has a slight loss of estimation accuracy with a Table 2. Note that the proposed algorithm requires lower average
reduced computational load. operations than the three norm-based search algorithms and achieves
Suppose that the partial distortion of a candidate block properly about 6–10 times computation reduction compared with the FS.
represents the MAD of the block, we can use it for the block distortion
comparison with low computational complexity. In fact, the MAD Table 1: Average MSE of first 80 frames
between two blocks intensely depends on a small number of significant Search algorithm Football Salesman
pixels that have higher matching errors. Fig. 1 shows that the average
FS 158.13 21.78
partial distortions for sorted significant pixels are much larger than those
SEA 158.13 21.78
for evenly sampled pixels. Furthermore, we find that 10 and 50% of
PNSA 158.13 21.78
significant pixels make about 30 and 80% of the total matching distor-
tion, respectively. Based on these facts, the partial distortions computed PPNMA 158.13 21.78
by significant pixels can be used for the block distortion comparison in NPDS 166.19 22.17
place of the MADs. Since the distribution of motion vectors in real-world Proposed (SPDS) 158.11 21.78
image sequences is centre-biased [2–4], the origin block is employed as
the initial candidate to compare it with the other candidates.
The proposed algorithm is composed of two stages. The first stage
Table 2: Average operations and speed-up per motion vector
computes differences for all pixels in the centre block of the search
window. The positions are sorted in decreasing order of the differences Football Salesman
and then used as the matching order for the other candidates. In the Search algorithm
Average operations Speed-up Average operations Speed-up
second stage, comparisons between the partial distortions of a candidate FS 172 575 1.0 172 575 1.0
and those of the origin are carried out. If the partial distortion of a SEA 112 978 1.53 74 675 2.31
candidate is greater than that of the origin, the candidate is discarded.
PNSA 52 556 3.28 36 910 4.68
Otherwise, the comparison is repeated with more pixels for these two
PPNMA 33 736 5.12 20 683 8.35
blocks according to the sorted positions, until all pixels are used for the
NPDS 12 380 13.94 13 850 12.46
comparison. Although our scheme requires an additional computation
cost for sorting pixels in the origin block, it is small compared with the Proposed (SPDS) 25 120 6.87 16 804 10.27
total cost for the MAD operations performed in the search window.

ELECTRONICS LETTERS 22nd January 2004 Vol. 40 No. 2

Conclusions: A fast block motion-estimation algorithm using partial
block distortions for sorted significant pixels is proposed. Experi-
mental results show that the proposed method yields the same or
superior MSE performance and about 6–10 times computation reduc-
tion compared with the FS
# IEE 2004 18 November 2003
Electronics Letters online no: 20040091
doi: 10.1049/el:20040091
W.G. Hong and T.M. Oh (Department of Information Media
Engineering, Myongji College, Seoul 120-776, Korea)
E-mail: whong@mail.mjc.ac.kr
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 22nd January 2004
References
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estimation’, IEEE Trans. Image Process., 1995, 4, (1), pp. 105–107
2 Oh, T.M., Kim, Y.R., Hong, W.G., and Ko, S.J.: ‘Partial norm based
search algorithm for fast motion estimation’, Electron. Lett., 2000, 36,
(14), pp. 1195–1196
3 Hong, W.G., Oh, T.M., and Ko, S.J.: ‘Fast motion-estimation algorithm
based on progressive partial norm matching’, Electron. Lett., 2001, 37,
(14), pp. 890–892
4 Chok-Kwan, C., and Lai-Man, P.: ‘Normalized partial distortion search
algorithm for block motion estimation’, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video
Technol., 2000, 10, (3), pp. 417–422
Vol. 40 No. 2