Patent ID: 8743961
Filing Date: 2014-06-03
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of coding a video sequence constituted by a plurality of images each comprising at least one block of pixels, the method comprising steps of: calculating a plurality of similarity values, in terms of a predetermined similarity metric, each of the plurality of similarity values being calculated between a block of pixels to code of a current image of the video sequence and a different one of a plurality of blocks of pixels of a reference image of the video sequence; determining a motion vector for blocks of pixels of the reference image of the video sequence for which a similarity value has been calculated in the calculating step; determining a block of pixels of the reference image for which a similarity value, of the plurality of similarity values, relative to the block of pixels to code of the current image is an extremum; predicting at least one motion vector for the block of pixels to code from at least one neighboring motion vector in terms of a predetermined neighborhood, the neighboring motion vector being calculated from the block of pixels of the reference image for which the similarity value relative to the block of pixels to code of the current image is the extremum; determining a final motion vector for the block of pixels to code from at least one of the plurality of similarity values calculated for the block of pixels to code in the calculating step and from the at least one motion vector predicted in the predicting step; coding the block of pixels to code using the final motion vector, wherein a single predicted motion vector is predicted in the predicting step, and wherein the final motion vector is based on the predicted motion vector, a motion vector corresponding to an extremum of a similarity map and a coding cost increase for the single predicted motion vector, the coding cost being based in part on respective similarity values associated with the predicted motion vector and the motion vector corresponding to the extremum.