Evolutionary strategy based improved motion estimation technique for H.264 video coding

Abstract

In this paper we propose an improved motion estimation algorithm based on evolutionary strategy (ES) for H.264 video codec applied to video. The proposed technique works in a parallel local search for macroblocks. For this purpose (mu+lambda) ES is used with an initial population of heuristically and randomly generated motion vectors. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme can reduce the computational complexity up to 50% of the motion estimation algorithm used in the H.264 reference codec at the same picture quality. Therefore, the proposed algorithm provides a significant improvement in motion estimation in the H.264 video codec.