Inherit-Based Adaptive Frame Selection for Fast Multi-frame Motion Estimation in H.264.

H.264 allows motion estimation performing on multiple reference frames and seven modes. This new feature improves the prediction accuracy of inter-coding blocks significantly, but it is extremely computational intensive because the complexity of multi-frame motion estimation is quickly increased with the number of used reference frames. Moreover, the distortion gain caused by each reference frame in various modes is correlated, therefore it is not efficient to scan all the candidate frames in all seven modes. In this paper, a novel inherit-based adaptive frame selection method is proposed to reduce the complexity of the multi-frame motion estimation process. A new reference list for ME (Motion Estimation) of low level mode is constructed adaptively according to the results of ME of up level mode. Simulation results show that the proposed method can save about 15% to 50% computations while getting almost the same Rate-Distortion performance as the full scan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]