No-Reference Quality Assessment of Enhanced Images

Image enhancement is a popular technique,which is widely used to improve the visual quality of images.While image enhancement has been extensively investigated,the relevant quality assessment of enhanced images remains an open problem,which may hinder further development of enhancement techniques.In this paper,a no-reference quality metric for digitally enhanced images is proposed.Three kinds of features are extracted for characterizing the quality of enhanced images,including non-structural information,sharpness and naturalness.Specifically,a total of 42 perceptual features are extracted and used to train a support vector regression(SVR) model.Finally,the trained SVR model is used for predicting the quality of enhanced images.The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on several enhancement-related databases,including a new enhanced image database built by the authors.The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and advantage of the proposed metric.

No-Reference Image Quality Assessment Method Based on Visual Parameters

Recent studies on no-reference image quality assessment (NR-IQA) methods usually learn to evaluate the image quality by regressing from human subjective scores of the training samples. This study presented an NR-IQA method based on the basic image visual parameters without using human scored image databases in learning. We demonstrated that these features comprised the most basic characteristics for constructing an image and influencing the visual quality of an image. In this paper, the definitions, computational method, and relationships among these visual metrics were described. We subsequently proposed a no-reference assessment function, which was referred to as a visual parameter measurement index (VPMI), based on the integration of these visual metrics to assess image quality. It is established that the maximum of VPMI corresponds to the best quality of the color image. We verified this method using the popular assessment database—image quality assessment database (LIVE), and the results indicated that the proposed method matched better with the subjective assessment of human vision. Compared with other image quality assessment models, it is highly competitive. VPMI has low computational complexity, which makes it promising to implement in real-time image assessment systems.

No-Reference Stereo Image Quality Assessment Based on Transfer Learning

In order to apply the deep learning to the stereo image quality evaluation,two problems need to be solved:The first one is that we have a bit of training samples,another is how to input the dimensional image’s left view or right view.In this paper,we transfer the 2D image quality evaluation model to the stereo image quality evaluation,and this method solves the first problem;use the method of principal component analysis is used to fuse the left and right views into an input image in order to solve the second problem.At the same time,the input image is preprocessed by phase congruency transformation,which further improves the performance of the algorithm.The structure of the deep convolution neural network consists of four convolution layers and three maximum pooling layers and two fully connected layers.The experimental results on LIVE3D image database show that the prediction quality score of the model is in good agreement with the subjective evaluation value.

A NEW OBJECTIVE STEREOSCOPIC IMAGE ASSESSMENT MODEL BASED ON STEREOSCOPIC PERCEPTION

In order to establish a stereoscopic image quality assessment method which is consistent with human visual perception,we propose an objective stereoscopic image quality assessment method.It takes into account the strong correlation and high degree of structural between pixels of image.This method contains two models.One is the quality synthetic assessment of left-right view images,which is based on human visual characteristics,we use the Singular Value Decomposition(SVD)that can represent the degree of the distortion,and combine the qualities of left and right images by the characteristics of binocular superposition.The other model is stereoscopic perception quality assessment,due to strong stability of image’s singular value characteristics,we calculate the distance of the singular values and structural characteristic similarity of the absolute difference maps,and utilize the statistical value of the global error to evaluate stereoscopic perception.Finally,we combine two models to describe the stereoscopic image quality.Experimental results show that the correlation coefficients of the proposed assessment method and the human subjective perception are above 0.93,and the mean square errors are all less than 6.2,under JPEG,JP2K compression,Gaussian blurring,Gaussian white noise,H.264 coding distortion,and hybrid cross distortion.It indicates that the proposed stereoscopic objective method is consistent with human visual properties and also of availability.

No-reference blur assessment method based on gradient and saliency

To evaluate the quality of blurred images effectively,this study proposes a no-reference blur assessment method based on gradient distortion measurement and salient region maps.First,a Gaussian low-pass filter is used to construct a reference image by blurring a given image.Gradient similarity is included to obtain the gradient distortion measurement map,which can finely reflect the smallest possible changes in textures and details.Second,a saliency model is utilized to calculate image saliency.Specifically,an adaptive method is used to calculate the specific salient threshold of the blurred image,and the blurred image is binarized to yield the salient region map.Block-wise visual saliency serves as the weight to obtain the final image quality.Experimental results based on the image and video engineering database,categorial image quality database,and camera image database demonstrate that the proposed method correlates well with human judgment.Its computational complexity is also relatively low.

Multi-Scale Blind Image Quality Predictor Based on Pyramidal Convolution

Traditional image quality assessment methods use the hand-crafted features to predict the image quality score,which cannot perform well in many scenes.Since deep learning promotes the development of many computer vision tasks,many IQA methods start to utilize the deep convolutional neural networks(CNN)for IQA task.In this paper,a CNN-based multi-scale blind image quality predictor is proposed to extract more effectivity multi-scale distortion features through the pyramidal convolution,which consists of two tasks:A distortion recognition task and a quality regression task.For the first task,image distortion type is obtained by the fully connected layer.For the second task,the image quality score is predicted during the distortion recognition progress.Experimental results on three famous IQA datasets show that the proposed method has better performance than the previous traditional algorithms for quality prediction and distortion recognition.

A multimodal dense convolution network for blind image quality assessment

Technological advancements continue to expand the communications industry’s potential.Images,which are an important component in strengthening communication,are widely available.Therefore,image quality assessment(IQA)is critical in improving content delivered to end users.Convolutional neural networks(CNNs)used in IQA face two common challenges.One issue is that these methods fail to provide the best representation of the image.The other issue is that the models have a large number of parameters,which easily leads to overfitting.To address these issues,the dense convolution network(DSC-Net),a deep learning model with fewer parameters,is proposed for no-reference image quality assessment(NR-IQA).Moreover,it is obvious that the use of multimodal data for deep learning has improved the performance of applications.As a result,multimodal dense convolution network(MDSC-Net)fuses the texture features extracted using the gray-level co-occurrence matrix(GLCM)method and spatial features extracted using DSC-Net and predicts the image quality.The performance of the proposed framework on the benchmark synthetic datasets LIVE,TID2013,and KADID-10k demonstrates that the MDSC-Net approach achieves good performance over state-of-the-art methods for the NR-IQA task.

Structured Computational Modeling of Human Visual System for No-reference Image Quality Assessment

Objective image quality assessment(IQA)plays an important role in various visual communication systems,which can automatically and efficiently predict the perceived quality of images.The human eye is the ultimate evaluator for visual experience,thus the modeling of human visual system(HVS)is a core issue for objective IQA and visual experience optimization.The traditional model based on black box fitting has low interpretability and it is difficult to guide the experience optimization effectively,while the model based on physiological simulation is hard to integrate into practical visual communication services due to its high computational complexity.For bridging the gap between signal distortion and visual experience,in this paper,we propose a novel perceptual no-reference(NR)IQA algorithm based on structural computational modeling of HVS.According to the mechanism of the human brain,we divide the visual signal processing into a low-level visual layer,a middle-level visual layer and a high-level visual layer,which conduct pixel information processing,primitive information processing and global image information processing,respectively.The natural scene statistics(NSS)based features,deep features and free-energy based features are extracted from these three layers.The support vector regression(SVR)is employed to aggregate features to the final quality prediction.Extensive experimental comparisons on three widely used benchmark IQA databases(LIVE,CSIQ and TID2013)demonstrate that our proposed metric is highly competitive with or outperforms the state-of-the-art NR IQA measures.

面向分类和深度损失的立体图像重定向质量评价

现有的立体重定向图像客观评价算法往往采用统一的方法对重定向图像的失真予以衡量.然而,对于不同类型的立体重定向图像,人眼关注的失真类型与模式不尽相同.此外,现有算法未能精确地衡量重定向图像中深度感变化.针对上述问题,本文提出了一种基于分类和深度感损失的立体图像重定向质量评价算法.该算法根据重定向图像的显著度和深度特征进行图像分类,对不同类型的图像采用不同的失真质量评价策略.此外,为了精确衡量重定向图像的深度感变化,本文还提出了两种用于衡量深度感损失的指标,分别利用重定向过程中深度信息的丢失以及绝对深度的相似度来衡量深度感的损失.本文利用NBU-SIRQA和SIRD数据库进行实验,结果表明,本文算法的整体评价性能优于现有所有算法.

基于交互式卷积神经网络的立体图像质量评价

目前立体图像质量评价算法缺乏可靠的预测性能,主要表现在研究人类视觉系统时生物学理论薄弱,并且已有的浅层模型无法模拟出视觉信息复杂的处理过程。针对上述问题,提出一种基于交互式卷积神经网络的无参考立体图像质量评价算法。根据初级视觉区域的双目视觉机制,融合左、右视图生成独眼特征图,并采用高斯差分算法提取左、右视图边缘信息,计算边缘求和以及差分特征图;搭建交互式卷积神经网络,整合特征图,实现深度特征学习和质量回归预测。在LIVE立体图像库上的Pearson线性相关系数(Pearson Linear Correlation Coefficient,PLCC)达到0.95以上,结果表明采用该算法能有效地解决失真立体图像质量评价问题。

双通道立体图像质量评价方法的研究

针对立体图像质量评价问题,基于人眼观测图像的感知特性,提出一种双通道立体图像质量评价算法。首先,获取双目视图的拉普拉斯金字塔序列构建融合图,采用并行域分解多权重化策略提取双目局部质量感知特征;然后,结合视觉平衡特性引入语义特征通道提取双目高层次语义特征;最后,在支持向量回归的基础上得到双通道主客观图像质量评价值的关系映射。双通道网络集成了包含视差信息的多局部细节特征与全局语义特征,在LIVE 3D phaseⅠ与LIVE 3D phaseⅡ立体图像库进行性能测试。结果表明:所提算法所得预测值与主观评价值间具有良好的一致性。

无参考船舶立体图像的质量感知特征提取

船舶立体图像的特征提取能够获取船舶的几何特征、视觉特征、纹理特征等,对于船舶识别、目标搜索等有重要的意义。获取过程受图像、视频设备、数据传输链路等影响,立体图像可能存在局部缺失等问题。本文首先介绍3种立体图像的质量评估方法,并针对无参考质量评价方法进行研究,详细介绍基于颜色、自然度的无参考质量感知特征提取和基于局部分析的无参考船舶立体图像质量特征提取,对于改善船舶立体图像的识别效果有显著的作用。

基于深度学习的无参考立体图像质量评价

立体图像质量评价是评价立体视频系统性能的有效途径,而如何结合人类的视觉特性对立体图像质量进行评价是目前的研究难点.为此提出一种基于深度学习的无参考立体图像质量评价方法,分为训练和测试2个阶段.在训练阶段,首先对左右图像分别进行Gabor滤波,获取不同尺度和方向的统计特征作为单目特性;然后根据人眼视觉系统的双目竞争特性,将左右图像融合得到独眼图,提取其方向梯度直方图作为双目特征;最后通过深度信念网络训练得到特征和主观评价值之间的回归模型.在测试阶段,根据已建立的回归模型,预测得到左右图像质量并联合得到立体图像质量.实验结果表明,文中方法在对称和非对称立体图像数据库都取得了较好的效果,与人类的主观感知保持良好的一致性.

利用奇异值分解法的立体图像客观质量评价模型

为了利用人眼的立体掩蔽效应去除视频信号中存在的视觉心理冗余,以进一步提高立体视频编码效率,提出一种立体图像客观质量评价模型.首先通过对立体图像的主观视觉质量分析探寻具有统计意义的人眼立体掩蔽效应规律,为客观质量评价模型的建立和优化提供理论依据;然后根据图像的奇异值表征图像属性具有较强稳定性特点,并将其引入模型中;最后通过实验对该模型进行优化,并按照VQEG的质量评价参数对优化后的模型进行性能评价.实验结果表明,Pearson线性相关系数值为0.955,均方根误差值为3.737,Spearman等级相关系数值为0.906,异常值比率值为0.811%,表明文中提出的客观评价模型能够很好地预测人眼观看立体图像的主观感知.

基于结构失真分析的立体图像质量客观评价模型

在立体图像?视频系统编码、传输、解码等环节中,立体图像质量评价是图像失真的一个重要评判准则.考虑到图像结构特性能较好地反映立体图像质量变化,提出一种基于结构失真的立体图像质量客观评价模型,该模型包括左右视点图像质量和深度感知质量评价两部分.首先根据人眼对图像中不同区域的敏感度存在差异且自然图像具有一定方向奇异性的特性,得到左右视点图像质量评价值;然后利用左右视点的绝对差值图像,采用奇异值向量差异和均值偏差率来描述立体图像深度感的畸变;最后融合前面两部分的评价值得到最终的立体图像质量评价值.实验结果表明,文中模型与主观感知存在较好的一致性,对于高斯模糊、高斯白噪声、JPEG压缩、JP2000压缩以及H.264编码,其评价结果与主观感知之间的相关系数高于0.93,Spearman秩相关系数高于0.92,均方误差低于6.6.

基于视觉感知和零水印的部分参考立体图像质量评价模型

通过分析人类视觉系统的纹理方向特性和立体感知特性,并结合数字水印的半脆弱性和支持向量回归(Support Vector Regression,SVR)的泛化学习能力,该文提出一种基于视觉感知和零水印的部分参考立体图像质量客观评价模型。该模型利用立体图像左右视点经小波分解后在同一空间频率的水平和垂直方向子带系数关系构造反映图像纹理方向特征的视点零水印,同时,利用左右视点视差值与自适应阈值的大小关系构造反映立体感质量的视差零水印,然后利用SVR来学习两类零水印恢复率(视觉加权视点零水印恢复率和视差零水印恢复率)与主观评价值的关系,最后用训练好的SVR完成立体图像质量预测。实验结果表明该模型符合人眼视觉特性,所得到的客观评价值与主观评价值具有较好的一致性。

基于小波图像融合的非对称失真立体图像质量评价方法

通过研究非对称失真立体图像人眼视觉感知特性,提出了一种基于小波图像融合的非对称失真立体图像质量客观评价方法。首先,采用固定尺寸块匹配方法得到原始立体图像块视差值,接着,根据该视差值的大小,同时结合非对称失真立体图像视觉感知特性,对匹配块进行小波融合得到原始融合图像和失真融合图像。最后,通过计算原始融合图像和失真融合图像之间的方向投影变化距离来度量立体图像的失真程度。实验结果表明该模型与各类非对称失真立体图像的主观评价值具有较好的一致性,尤其在评价交叉失真立体图像时取得了较好的评价效果。

基于视觉阈值及通道融合的立体图像质量评价

根据人眼对彩色图像不同颜色通道的敏感度不同,利用掩蔽效应对人眼感知立体图像质量产生的影响,提出了一种基于视觉阈值分析和通道融合的彩色图像客观质量评价方法。利用人眼视觉阈值确定立体图像的失真是否在人眼可察觉的范围,若失真程度小于视觉掩蔽阈值,则认为没有失真。利用原始和失真彩色图像RGB三通道各自左视点差值图和右视点差值图的奇异值与人眼视觉掩蔽阈值图的奇异值距离来衡量失真图像左右视点图像的质量。原始和失真图像对的绝对差图之差值图像和原始图像对的双目恰可察觉失真阈值图之间的奇异值距离被用于评价失真立体图像的深度感知好坏。不同失真类型下,左右视点质量融合以及左右视点评价和深度感知评价的融合其加权权值不同。对JPEG压缩、JPEG2000压缩、高斯白噪声、高斯模糊和H.264编码5种不同程度失真的312幅退化图像进行了测试,结果显示本文方法与主观感知有较好的一致性,总体CC(Pearson Linear Correlation Coefficient)达到0.94,总体SROCC(Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient)达到0.94,整体均方根误差(RMSE)控制在5.9以内。

基于眼优势的非对称失真立体图像质量评价

针对现有立体图像质量评价算法对非对称失真立体图像的评价准确性及执行效率较低的问题,提出一种基于眼优势的非对称失真立体图像质量评价算法.首先采用梯度幅值响应来模拟左右眼输入的刺激强度,并根据人类视觉系统的眼优势原理分别以左和右视点图像作为主视图合成两幅融合图像;其次,利用旋转不变统一局部二值模式直方图、皮尔逊线性相关系数以及非对称广义高斯模型,获取左右融合图像以及左右梯度幅值响应图像中的多种能够反映立体图像质量好坏的特征;最后,利用自适应增强的支持向量回归模型将感知特征向量映射为图像质量值.在四个基准测试数据库上的实验结果表明:本文所提出算法大幅提升了非对称失真立体图像的评价准确性,且具有较高的执行效率.这些优势说明本文算法所提取的特征描述能力更强,质量映射模型的稳定性更好.

基于支持向量回归的立体图像客观质量评价模型

立体图像质量评价是评价立体视频系统性能的有效途径,而如何利用人类视觉特性对立体图像质量进行有效评价是目前的研究难点。该文根据图像奇异值有较强稳定性的特点,结合立体图像的主观视觉特性,提出了一种基于支持向量回归(Support Vector Regression,SVR)的立体图像客观质量评价模型。该模型通过分析立体图像的视觉特性,提取左右图像的奇异值作为立体图像的特征信息,然后根据立体图像的不同失真类型情况对其特征进行融合,通过SVR预测得到立体图像质量的客观评价值。实验结果表明,采用该文提出的客观评价模型对立体数据测试库进行评价,Pearson线性相关系数值在0.93以上,Spearman等级相关系数值在0.94以上,均方根误差值接近6,异常值比率值为0.00%,符合人眼视觉特性,能够很好地预测人眼对立体图像的主观感知。