Method and apparatus for low-latency template matching in video coding system

An apparatus of video coding, the apparatus comprising one or more electronic circuits or processors arranged to:

• receive input data comprising a current block of a video unit in a current picture;
• determine a current template for the current block, wherein at least one of current above template and current left template is removed or said at least one of current above template and current left template is located away from a respective above edge or a respective left edge of the current block, wherein the current block is contained within a current pre-defined region and the current template is derived using neighbouring samples from one or more above neighbouring blocks of the current pre-defined region, one or more left neighbouring blocks of the current pre-defined region, or both;
• determine candidate reference templates associated with the current block at a set of candidate locations in a reference picture, wherein each candidate reference template corresponds to the current template at one corresponding candidate location;
• determine a location of a target reference template among the candidate reference templates that achieves a best match with the current template;
• and
• determine a refined motion vector (MV) by refining an initial MV according to the location of the target reference template.