Abstract: A novel method for the sub-pixel image registration based on phase correlation was introduced, which could be used to detect the movements of video sequences exactly, and could obtain the video outputs stably. Firstly, two images translated based on the phase correlation technique were registered, and the paraboloid surface fitting method based on least-square was used to estimate displacement parameters of the images. Then, the sub-pixel motion vector between the two sequential images could be exactly detected. A smooth algorithm in transform formula of the sub-pixel motion compensation was adopted to avoid the mosaics of images and to improve the precision of image compensation. In order to verify the algorithm in experiments, some sample simulations were performed. The results show that this method can detect the shift parameters accurately and efficiently, which makes it possible to estimate image displacement with 0.01-pixel accuracy. Further more, the maximum error of registration is only 0.008-pixel, and the root of mean square error of image compensation is also less than 0.5.