Multistage motion vector quantization for video coding

We present a novel multiresolution block-matching scheme-based on multistag e motion vector quantization (MSMVQ) for videocoding. The MSMVQ performs th e block matching on the coarse-to-fine basis where rough results of block m atching are provided at the earlier stages of MSMVQ with fast computation. and accurate results are given at the later stages with additional arithmet ic complexity. The multiresolution block matching process at each stage uti lizes the results of its previous stages to further enhance the performance of MSMVQ. Simulation results show that the algorithm can be effectively ap plied to the applications where video decoders having different demands on the computational complexities and resolutions for block matching are desir ed to share the same video encoder. (C) 2000 Society of Photo-Optical instr umentation Engineers. [S0091-3286(00)02607-6].