A scalable hierarchical motion estimation algorithm for MPEG-2

In this paper, a new scalable hierarchical motion vector estimation algorithm is developed for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoder applications. The scalable hierarchical motion estimation architecture uses a 4-layer pyramid switching from one-bit/pixel to eight-bit/pixel representation according to the available platform resources and/or user's choices. The scalability is realized in terms of computational complexity, memory requirement and communication bandwidth. Four picture quality levels correspond to four complexity levels. With such features, platform-adaptive encoding and computing is made possible.