Block matching motion estimation (BMME) plays a very important role in video coding. The performance of BMME greatly affects the quality of the encoded bit stream. Full Search (FS) is the optimal algorithm for BMME. But the tremendous computation payload of it is unaffordable for practical applications

especially for real time applications. To overcome this problem

a lot of fast algorithms were developed. In this paper

a novel fast motion estimation algorithm designed for the new video coding standard H.264/MPEG 4 AVC is proposed. Based on an adaptive search range

the proposed algorithm makes use of the statistical characteristics between successive frames and the spatial and temporal correlations among the motion vectors of adjacent blocks to speed the process of motion estimation while maintaining the PSNR with no loss. The simulation results show that the algorithm is able to fit for all types of video sequences adaptively in spite of the degree of the motions. Compared with other algorithms

it is more than 280 times faster than FS (Full Search) and more than 1.8 times faster than 3SS (3 Steps Search) in average with no PSNR loss. And it is a better one than the traditional fast motion estimation algorithms

such as N3SS (New 3 Steps Search) and 4SS (4 Steps Search).