• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.257-271
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• 2016

The Structural SIMilarity (SSIM) index is one of the most widely-used methods for perceptual image quality assessment (IQA). It is based on the principle that the human visual system (HVS) is sensitive to the overall structure of an image. However, it has been reported that indices predicted by SSIM tend to be biased depending on the type of distortion, which increases the deviation from the main regression curve. Consequently, SSIM can result in serious performance degradation. In this study, we investigate the aforementioned phenomenon from a new perspective and review a constant that plays a big role within the SSIM metric but has been overlooked thus far. Through an experimental study on the influence of this constant in evaluating images with SSIM, we are able to propose a new solution that resolves this issue. In the proposed IQA method, we first design a system to classify different types of distortion, and then match an optimal constant to each type. In addition, we supplement the proposed method by adding color perception-based structural information. For a comprehensive assessment, we compare the proposed method with 15 existing IQA methods. The experimental results show that the proposed method is more consistent with the HVS than the other methods.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.2230-2250
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• 2015

Multiple projectors with partially overlapping regions can be used to project a seamless image on a large projection surface. With the advent of high-resolution photography, such systems are gaining popularity. Experts set up such projection systems by subjectively identifying the types of errors induced by the system in the projected images and rectifying them by optimizing (correcting) the parameters associated with the system. This requires substantial time and effort, thus making it difficult to set up such systems. Moreover, comparing the performance of different multi-projector display (MPD) systems becomes difficult because of the subjective nature of evaluation. In this work, we present a framework to quantitatively determine the quality of an MPD system and any image projected using such a system. We have divided the quality assessment into geometric and photometric qualities. For geometric quality assessment, we use Feature Similarity Index (FSIM) and distance-based Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). For photometric quality assessment, we propose to use a measure incorporating Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), Intensity Magnitude Ratio (IMR) and Perceptual Color Difference (ΔE). We have tested the proposed framework and demonstrated that it provides an acceptable method for both quantitative evaluation of MPD systems and estimation of the perceptual quality of any image projected by them.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.20-30
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• 2015

We propose a new method that specifies objective image quality factors by evaluating an image quality measurement model using random images. In other words, No-Reference variables are used to evaluate the quality of an original image without using any reference for comparison. 1000 portrait images were collected from a web gallery with votes constituting over 30 recommendation values. The bottom-up data collecting process was used to calculate the following image quality factors: total range, average, standard deviation, normalized distribution, z-score, preference percentage. A final grade is awarded out of 100 points, and this method ranks and grades the final estimated image quality preference in terms of total image quality factors. The results of the proposed image quality evaluation model consist of the specific dynamic range, skin tone R, G, B, L, A, B, and RSC contrast. We can present the total for the expected preference points as the average of the objective image qualities. Our proposed image quality evaluation model can measure the preferences for an actual image using a statistical analysis. The results indicate that this is a practical image quality measurement model that can extract a subject's preferred image quality.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.827-835
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• 2019

In the pooling stage of a full reference image quality assessment (FR-IQA) technique, the global perceived quality for any distorted image is usually measured from the quality of its local image patches. But all the image patches do not have equal contribution when estimating the overall visual quality since the degree of degradation on those patches depends on various considerations i.e., types of the patches, types of the distortions, distortion sensitivities of the patches, saliency score of the patches, etc. As a result, weighted pooling strategy comes into account and different weighting mechanisms are used by the existing FR-IQA methods. This paper performs a thorough analysis and proposes a novel weighting function by considering the luminance adaptation as well as the visual saliency effect to offer more appropriate local weights, which can be adopted in the existing FR-IQA frameworks to improve their prediction accuracy. The extended experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed weighting function.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 2008

With the rapid development of display technology as well as the diversity of display, image quality assessment plays an important role in display color reproduction. The image quality has described by objective evaluation based on the physical measured data, such as contrast ratio, color reproduction range, color temperature, and gamma characteristics, etc., however, the final judgement is achieved by perceptual quality assessment of observers. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between physical performance of display and perceptual image quality. Thus, in order to evaluate objectively the color reproduction characteristics of two mobile displays, TFT-LCD and AMOLED, we measured the darkroom contrast ratio of full screen, luminance and color temperature of full-screen white, full-screen gray and color linearity, tone reproduction of color scales for each RGB primary, and color reproduction range. Then the pair-wise comparison is implemented for image experts and naive observers not only to judge their preference on principal evaluation attributes but also to subjectively describe perceived image quality. Through two evaluation processes, we derived the objective bases that can prove the results of subjective image quality assessment by interconnecting physical factors that have influence on observers' preference judgements. Finally, this paper provided important information for improving the image quality and increasing preference from an observer's point of view.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.11-21
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• 2018

Assessment technologies regarding the perceptual quality of images and videos have been receiving significant attention, as they serve as essential tools for monitoring and improving the quality of various media services. In this paper, we review the technology trends of recent studies on the perceptual quality assessment of images and videos, and discuss the future direction of this research field.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.157-168
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• 2016

In image processing and computer vision fields, mean squared error (MSE) has popularly been used as an objective metric in image quality optimization problems due to its desirable mathematical properties such as metricability, differentiability and convexity. However, as known that MSE is not highly correlated with perceived visual quality, much effort has been made to develop new image quality assessment (IQA) metrics having both the desirable mathematical properties aforementioned and high prediction performances for subjective visual quality scores. Although recent IQA metrics having the desirable mathematical properties have shown to give some promising results in prediction performance for visual quality scores, they also have high computation complexities. In order to alleviate this problem, we propose a new fast IQA metric using a simple Laplace operator. Since the Laplace operator used in our IQA metric can not only effectively mimic operations of receptive fields in retina for luminance stimulus but also be simply computed, our IQA metric can yield both very fast processing speed and high prediction performance. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed IQA metric, our method is compared to some state-of-the-art IQA metrics. The experimental results showed that the proposed IQA metric has the fastest running speed compared the IQA methods except MSE under comparison. Moreover, our IQA metric achieves the best prediction performance for subjective image quality scores among the state-of-the-art IQA metrics under test.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.631-643
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• 2016

Due to the block-based discrete cosine transform (BDCT), JPEG compressed images usually exhibit blocking artifacts. When the bit rates are very low, blocking artifacts will seriously affect the image's visual quality. A bilateral filter has the features for edge-preserving when it smooths images, so we propose an adaptive-weighted bilateral filter based on the features. In this paper, an image-deblocking scheme using this kind of adaptive-weighted bilateral filter is proposed to remove and reduce blocking artifacts. Two parameters of the proposed adaptive-weighted bilateral filter are adaptive-weighted so that it can avoid over-blurring unsmooth regions while eliminating blocking artifacts in smooth regions. This is achieved in two aspects: by using local entropy to control the level of filtering of each single pixel point within the image, and by using an improved blind image quality assessment (BIQA) to control the strength of filtering different images whose blocking artifacts are different. It is proved by our experimental results that our proposed image-deblocking scheme provides good performance on eliminating blocking artifacts and can avoid the over-blurring of unsmooth regions.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.319-327
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• 2012

In this paper, we introduce a newly developed photogrammetric software for automatic generation of high quality geo-products and its performance assessment carried out using various satellite images. Our newly developed software provides the latest techniques of an optimized sensor modelling, ortho-image generation and automated Digital Elevation Model (DEM) generation for diverse remote sensing images. In particular, images from dual- and multi-sensor images can be integrated for 3D mapping. This can be a novel innovation toward a wider applicability of remote sensing data, since 3D mapping has been limited within only single-sensor so far. We used Kompsat-2, Ikonos, QuickBird, Spot-5 high resolution satellite images to test an accuracy of 3D points and ortho-image generated by the software. Outputs were assessed by comparing reliable reference data. From various sensor combinations 3D mapping were implemented and their accuracy was evaluated using independent check points. Model accuracy of 1~2 pixels or better was achieved regardless of sensor combination type. The high resolution ortho-image results are consistent with the reference map on a scale of 1:5,000 after being rectified by the software and an accuracy of 1~2 pixels could be achieved through quantitative assessment. The developed software offers efficient critical geo-processing modules of various remote sensing images and it is expected that the software can be widely used to meet the demand on the high-quality geo products.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.75-86
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to apply a newly developed free software program, at low cost and with minimal time, to evaluate the quality of dental and maxillofacial cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Materials and Methods: A polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantom, CQP-IFBA, was scanned in 3 CBCT units with 7 protocols. A macro program was developed, using the free software ImageJ, to automatically evaluate the image quality parameters. The image quality evaluation was based on 8 parameters: uniformity, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), noise, the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), spatial resolution, the artifact index, geometric accuracy, and low-contrast resolution. Results: The image uniformity and noise depended on the protocol that was applied. Regarding the CNR, high-density structures were more sensitive to the effect of scanning parameters. There were no significant differences between SNR and CNR in centered and peripheral objects. The geometric accuracy assessment showed that all the distance measurements were lower than the real values. Low-contrast resolution was influenced by the scanning parameters, and the 1-mm rod present in the phantom was not depicted in any of the 3 CBCT units. Smaller voxel sizes presented higher spatial resolution. There were no significant differences among the protocols regarding artifact presence. Conclusion: This software package provided a fast, low-cost, and feasible method for the evaluation of image quality parameters in CBCT.