Motion-Compensated Temporal Frame Interpolation Algorithm Based on Global Entirety Unidirectional Motion Estimation and Local Fast Bidirectional Motion Estimation

Abstract

To solve the uncertainty of motion for objects displayed on liquid crystal display (LCD), the motion estimation (ME) algorithm on the basis of global entirety unidirectional motion and local fast bidirectional motion (GEU-LFB) is proposed for motion-compensated temporal frame interpolation (MCTFI). Firstly, by observing the moving objects in the scene, we will obtain a set of global motion vectors (MVs). Secondly, the fast local search based on the bidirectional ME is executed. Additionally, to make up for the defect of the bidirectional ME, a method to generate the exposure mask and the occlusion mask is proposed by cleverly using the matching criterion of absolute difference and the set of global MVs. Next, the optimal MV field is smoothed by the vector median filter. Finally, the temporal interpolation frame obtained through the weighted filtering compensation method is further improved by using masks. Overall, the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has better performance than the existing methods in terms of objective and subjective criteria. Moreover, it can solve problems of exposure and occlusion, and get better frame interpolation for the video sequence with fast moving targets.