Overlapped Block Motion Compensation for Blocking Artifact Reduction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing video compression technologies face challenges in effectively reducing blocking artifacts and improving coding efficiency, particularly in high-resolution video content, due to limitations in motion compensation techniques.

Innovation Solution

The application of overlapped block motion compensation (OBMC) is enhanced by distinguishing between external and internal OBMC operations, using separate processes for boundary and internal samples within coding units, and employing sub-block level motion compensation to merge blocks with similar motion information, thereby reducing blocking artifacts and enhancing coding efficiency.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Object-affected harmful factors

If traditional motion compensation is used, then coding efficiency is maintained at current levels, but blocking artifacts remain significant in high-resolution video content

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveblocking artifactsVSAvoidcoding efficiency
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the coding unit into multiple sub-blocks and applies separate motion compensation to each sub-block. This segmentation allows different motion vectors to be used for different regions, reducing blocking artifacts at sub-block boundaries while maintaining coding efficiency through localized motion modeling.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent merges adjacent sub-blocks that share similar motion characteristics into larger prediction units. By combining sub-blocks with comparable motion vectors, the method reduces the number of separate motion compensation operations needed, thereby improving coding efficiency while still preventing blocking artifacts through the merged prediction.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Object-affected harmful factors

If sub-block level motion compensation is applied to all blocks, then blocking artifacts are reduced, but computational complexity increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveblocking artifactsVSAvoidcomputational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies sub-block level motion compensation selectively based on local motion characteristics. Regions with high motion variation receive detailed sub-block processing to reduce blocking artifacts, while regions with uniform motion use coarser prediction. This localized approach reduces overall computational complexity while maintaining artifact reduction where most needed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs full sub-block level motion compensation on only certain coding units or sub-blocks rather than uniformly across the entire video stream. By applying the computationally intensive processing partially—only where motion complexity warrants it—the method reduces blocking artifacts in critical areas while limiting overall computational complexity increases.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Manufacturing precision

If separate external and internal OBMC operations are performed, then boundary sample quality improves, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveboundary sample qualityVSAvoidprocessing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs external OBMC operations on boundary samples before internal OBMC operations on interior samples. By pre-processing boundary samples with external motion compensation using reference blocks from adjacent coding units, the method ensures high-quality boundary prediction first, then applies internal OBMC only to remaining interior samples, reducing total processing time while maintaining boundary quality.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3704857B1Overlapped block motion compensation
Publication Date: 2026.04.08 INTERDIGITAL VC HOLDINGS INC
  • EP3704857B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3704857B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3704857B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

External overlapped block motion compensation (OBMC) may be performed for samples of a coding unit (CU) located along an inter-CU boundary of the CU while internal OBMC may be performed separately for samples located along inter-sub-block boundaries inside the CU. External OBMC may be applied based on substantially similar motion information associated with multiple external blocks neighboring the CU. The external blocks may be treated as a group to provide OBMC for multiple boundary samples together in an external OBMC operation. Internal OBMC may be applied using the same sub-block size used for sub-block level motion derivation. Internal OBMC may be disabled for the CU, for example, if the CU is coded in a spatial-temporal motion vector prediction (STMVP) mode.