We propose a novel fractal video coding method using fast block-matching motion estimation to overcome the drawback of the time-consuming character in the fractal coding. As fractal encoding essentially spends most time on the search for the best-matching block in a large domain pool, search patterns and the center-biased characteristics of motion vector distribution have large impact on both search speed and quality of block motion estimation. In this paper, firstly, we propose a new hexagon search algorithm (NHEXS), and, secondly, we ameliorate, by using this NHEXS, the traditional CPM/NCIM, which is based on Fisher's quadtree partition. This NHEXS uses two cross-shaped search patterns as the first two initial steps and large/small hexagon-shaped patterns as the subsequent steps for fast block motion estimation (BME). NHEXS employs halfway stop technique to achieve significant speedup on sequences with stationary and quasistationary blocks. To further reduce the computational complexity, NHEXS employs modified partial distortion criterion (MPDC). Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm spends less encoding time and achieves higher compression ratio and compression quality compared with the traditional CPM/NCIM method.
Based on the classical fractal video compression method, an improved monocular fractal compression method is proposed which includes using more effective macroblock partition scheme instead of classical quadtree partition scheme; using improved fast motion estimation to increase the calculation speed; using homo-I-frame like in H.264, etc. The monocular codec uses the motion compensated prediction (MCP) structure. And stereo fractal video coding is proposed which matches the macroblock with two reference frames in left and right views, and it results in increasing compression ratio and reducing bit rate/ bandwidth when transmitting compressed video data. The stereo codec combines MCP and disparity compensated prediction. And a new method of object-based fractal video coding is proposed in which each object can be encoded and decoded independently with higher compression ratio and speed and less bit rate/bandwidth when transmitting compressed stereo video data greatly. Experimental results indicate that the proposed monocular method can raise compression ratio 3.6 to 7.5 times, speed up compression time 5.3 to 22.3 times, and improve the image quality 3.81 to 9.24 dB in comparison with circular prediction mapping and non-contractive interframe mapping. The PSNR of the proposed stereo video coding is about 0.17 dB higher than that of the proposed monocular video coding, and 0.69 dB higher than that of JMVC 4.0 on average. Comparing with the bit rate resulted by the proposed monocular video coding and JMVC 4.0, the proposed stereo video coding achieves, on average, 2.53 and 21.14 Kbps bit rate saving, respectively. The proposed object-based fractal monocular and stereo video coding methods are simple and effective, and they make the applications of fractal monocular and stereo video coding more flexible and practicable.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.