Adaptive fast inter mode decision for wireless video applications using H.264/AVC

In this paper, we proposed an adaptive fast inter mode decision algorithm to reduce the computation complexity of H.264/AVC encoder. It makes use of spatio-temporal correlation to filter out unlikely modes. Instead of performing all the seven inter prediction modes, only part of them are chosen for motion estimation and rate distortion optimization (RDO) procedure. Adopting a dynamic adjusted threshold makes the proposed method work well in different bit-rate conditions, especially in low bit-rate. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm can achieve 23% time saving in inter mode decision on average while maintaining the similar rate distortion performance.