METHOD FOR MOTION ESTIMATION

A method for motion estimation. The method includes a) dividing a search area into sub-areas with different densities, b) deriving distortions of a currently selected macro-block and its neighbors determined by the density of the current sub-area, c) if one of the distortions of the neighbors is smallest, identifying the neighbor as the current macro-block, d) repeating steps b) and c) until the current macro-block has the smallest distortion, e) if the current macro-block having the smallest distortion is not located in the sub-area having the largest density, re-defining the search area according to the density of the current sub-area, and f) repeating steps a), b), c), d) and e) until the current macro-block having the smallest distortion is located in the sub-area having the largest density, identified as the reference macro-block.