A fast motion estimator for real-time system

We modify the three step search (TSS) algorithm to be applicable to real-time system, based on the statistics of motion vector distribution and propose a new architecture. The proposed technique includes a mechanism to stop the TSS algorithm anytime during its processing without degrading the accuracy of motion vector seriously. Thus, the anytime scheduling policy can be applied to the proposed algorithm for a less imprecise motion estimation in real-time application. The simple and regular architecture allows easy VLSI implementation, and minimizes the input data bandwidth. The performance is also analyzed in detail, and compared with those for other architectures.