An Adjacency Encoding Information-Based Fast Affine Motion Estimation Method for Versatile Video Coding

Abstract

Versatile video coding (VVC), a new generation video coding standard, achieves significant improvements over high efficiency video coding (HEVC) due to its added advanced coding tools. Despite the fact that affine motion estimation adopted in VVC takes into account the translational, rotational, and scaling motions of the object to improve the accuracy of interprediction, this technique adds a high computational complexity, making VVC unsuitable for use in real-time applications. To address this issue, an adjacency encoding information-based fast affine motion estimation method for VVC is proposed in this paper. First, this paper counts the probability of using the affine mode in interprediction. Then we analyze the trade-off between computational complexity and performance improvement based on statistical information. Finally, by exploring the mutual exclusivity between skip and affine modes, an enhanced method is proposed to reduce interprediction complexity. Experimental results show that compared with the VVC, the proposed low-complexity method achieves 10.11% total encoding time reduction and 40.85% time saving of affine motion estimation with a 0.16% Bjøontegaard delta bitrate (BDBR) increase.

A Fast Gradient Iterative Affine Motion Estimation Algorithm Based on Edge Detection for Versatile Video Coding

“…To meet this demand, researchers are committed to designing efficient and low-complexity video encoders. Although there has been some research work on reducing the computational complexity of VVC encoders, most of the research has focused on accelerating early decision making in the partitioning process [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Reference [15] proposed a fast partitioning algorithm for intra and inter-frame encoding.…”

“…At the same time, an improved Canny operator is used to extract edge information to exclude horizontal or vertical partitioning patterns. Reference [17] analyzes the probability of affine motion estimation mode in bidirectional prediction, explores the mutual exclusion between skip mode and affine mode, and proposes a VVC fast affine motion estimation mode based on near coding information. Reference [18] studied a fast motion estimation algorithm for the early termination of partial blocks in the CU, using skip mode for the CU that does not require affine changes.…”

“…However, the computational complexity of AME is high, and the motion estimation algorithm in the interprediction module takes up a long encoding time [14]. To achieve better encoding gain while reducing its computational complexity, many researchers have attempted to reduce its computational complexity in traditional affine motion estimation modules [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. However, there is still little work in the inter-frame prediction affine motion estimation module of VVC and there is still a large optimization space.…”