Fast one-pass motion compensated frame interpolation in high-definition video processing

In this paper, a fast one-pass processing method with an efficient architecture is proposed for motion compensated frame interpolation (MCFI) in high-definition (HD) videos. Unlike previous works involving high complexity, complicated time-consuming iterations, and less practicability, the proposed method adopts one-pass and low-complexity concept. The proposed method operates a modified fast full-search algorithm, multi-level successive eliminate algorithm (MSEA), in a raster scan order as in the usual block-based processing order in popular codecs, such as H.264/AVC and VC-1. The proposed method analyzes and classifies temporal information to compensate insufficient spatial information based on preprocessed neighboring blocks. According to the analyzed temporal information, our method explores true motion candidates and refines the accuracy of true motions for sub-blocks. When searching motion candidates, the proposed method introduces an adaptive overlapped block matching algorithm called a multi-directional enlarged matching algorithm (MDEMA), and considers different overlapped types based on directions of current sought motion vector in order to enhance the searching accuracy and visual quality. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm provides better video quality than conventional methods and shows satisfying performance.