A Novel Fast Inter Mode Decision Algorithm in H.264/AVC for Forest Fire Prevention Surveillance

The new generation video coding standard H.264/AVC has been developed to achieve higher coding efficiency than previous video coding standards. Its variable block size motion compensation requires huge computation, which is a big problem for real time application. To reduce the complexity, we propose a fast inter mode decision algorithm with early mode prediction rules and early block size classification by using RD cost of the mode. Only parts of the inter prediction modes are chosen for motion estimation and rate distortion optimization. An adaptive threshold makes the proposed algorithm works smooth for different video sequences with a wide variety of activity. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can achieve 53.9% time saving in inter mode decision on average without any noticeable performance degradation, and the increased of bit rate is less than 1%.