基于边缘特征和亮度的彩色图像质量评价

传统的图像质量评价算法大多针对灰度图像而言,这些算法利用图像中对应的像素灰度误差建立数学模型来评价图像,不能够评价彩色图像的质量。本文提出了一种基于边缘特征和颜色亮度信息的彩色图像质量评价方法。首先,利用Sobel算子提取图像边缘;其次,定义了边缘和亮度相似系数来分析它们对图像的影响。最后,综合考虑这两个因素建立数学模型对彩色图像进行评价。大量实验表明:该方法适合评价彩色图像;同时,该实验结果与人的主观感觉的一致性较好。     

基于改进颜色传递策略与NSCT的红外与可见光图像伪彩色融合

提出一种基于改进颜色传递策略与非下采样Contourlet变换(NSCT)的红外与可见光图像伪彩色融合算法。首先,利用NSCT与基于清晰区域的Canny边缘检测算法获得灰度融合图。其次,将融合灰度图像插入Y通道,源图像与融合灰度图像之间的残差图像分别插入Cb、Cr通道以生成YCbCr源彩色图像。最后,利用本文设计的颜色传递模型对源彩色图像和目标图像进行色彩颜色统计匹配,同时,通过自适应颜色传递参数模型调整颜色传递参数。实验结果表明,本文提出的融合算法使得伪彩色融合图像不仅对比度高、传递色彩自然、可以较好地抑制色彩渗入图像目标,而且对目标图像质量要求不严格。     

一种基于颜色特征的图像质量评价算法

颜色作为描述图像最直接有效的特征,是目前图像质量评价中备受关注的评价参数之一。提出一种基于颜色特征的全参考图像质量评价系统,该系统在结构相似性SSIM(Structural Similarity)理论的基础上,充分考虑色度信息对人眼视觉感知的影响,利用分块颜色矩,建立了一种新的相似度度量模型。实验结果表明,该模型获得的客观评价结果与主观评价值具有很高的一致性。     

基于奇异值分解与自然图像统计的无参考图像质量评价方法

针对图像质量评价问题,从自然图像统计与SVD角度出发,提出一种通用无参考图像质量评价方法.方法对待测失真图像进行局部归一化,利用奇异值分解提取图像高频信息,采用非对称广义高斯分布进行模拟高频信息的自然图像统计特征,构建图像质量特征向量;利用支持向量机构建图像质量回归模型,实现图像质量评价.通过在LIVE2图像质量评价数...     

基于颜色名称的彩色图像质量评价

图像质量评价(Image Quality Assessment,IQA)是计算机视觉领域研究的基本问题之一.目前,绝大多数图像质量模型都是基于灰度图像构建的,而彩色图像质量评价至今依然是IQA领域的开放性问题.彩色图像质量评价研究的关键在于建立与人类色彩认知能力相一致的色彩信息的量化描述.本文基于颜色名称(Colorn...     

基于特征符号化和Transformer的无参考图像质量评价方法

基于深度学习的无参考图像质量评价方法目前存在语义关联性不足或模型训练要求高的问题，为此，本文提出了一种基于语义特征符号化和Transformer的无参考图像质量评价方法。首先使用深层卷积神经网络提取图像的高层语义特征；然后将语义特征映射成视觉特征符号，并基于Transformer自注意力机制对视觉特征符号之间的关系进行建模，提取图像的全局特征，同时使用浅层神经网络提取底层局部图像特征，捕捉图像低级失真信息；最后结合全局图像信息与局部图像信息，对图像质量进行预测。为了验证模型的精度和鲁棒性，以相关系数PLCC和SROCC作为评价指标，在5个主流的图像质量评价数据集和1个水下图像质量评价数据集上进行了实验，并将本文提出的方法与15种传统和基于深度学习的无参考图像质量评价方法进行了对比。实验结果表明，本文方法以较少的参数量（大约1.56 MB）在各类数据集上均取得了优越的性能，尤其在多重失真数据集LIVE-MD上将SROCC提升到了0.958，证明在复杂的失真情况下仍能准确评估图像质量，本文网络结构能满足实际应用场景。     

一个图像质量盲评估的统计测度

本文提出了一个图像质量盲评估的统计测度.该测度首先根据自然图像的统计性质与失真图像的模型,实现对图像小波系数分布参数的盲估计;再利用估计的分布参数来计算失真图像与参考图像之间的互信息,以量化失真图像对参考图像的保真度,进而实现对图像质量的评估.本文提出的测度避免了对参考图像的依赖,且克服了现有图像质量盲评估对特征选择与提取、机器学习等过程的依赖.LIVE图像质量评估数据库的总体评估结果表明：本文提出的盲评估统计测度对图像质量评估结果与数据库的主观评估结果高度一致,且优于文献中报道的盲评估测度.     

去雾图像质量客观评价方法研究

针对目前去雾图像质量客观评价方法少和已有评价方法存在局限性等问题,提出一种去雾图像的客观质量评价新方法.针对去雾图像中存在的Halo效应,采用边缘加权结构相似性测度的方法,将雾化图像和去雾图像的整体轮廓信息与局部纹理细节信息加权来描述图像的结构相似度.从人类视觉感知的角度出发,定义了图像归一化灰度差,用来描述图像的亮度.将彩色图像转换到HSV颜色空间,利用S分量的信息熵和直方图相似度来描述图像的色彩还原能力.最后综合边缘加权结构相似性测度、图像归一化灰度差和色彩加权还原度建立去雾图像质量评价模型,并进行客观评价和比较.实验结果表明,与已有评价方法相比,所提出的评价方法能够获得与主观感受一致的结果,并具有较好的有效性和可靠性.     

图像视觉感知信息的初步研究

图像质量评价是图像处理领域中的重要方向,传统的图像质量评价方法不能有效的反映人眼对图像的视觉感知.本文从观察者对图像的感知理解出发,指出在一幅失真图像处理过程中,Shannon 信息量逐渐减少,观察者对图像的理解不断加深,图像包含的感知信息增大.我们从图像灰度特征,直方图,频带,图像理解的变化等方面初步定义了图像感知信息参量,并利用sigmoid函数给出了感知信息的初步计算方法,实验结果初步说明了感知信息的有效性和可行性.     

结合结构信息和亮度统计的无参考图像质量评价

基于非下采样Contourlet变换(Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform,NSCT)子带系数间的结构相关性,本文提出了一种通用的无参考图像质量评价方法.首先,利用互信息分析NSCT子带系数间的相关性,确定出相关性比较强的子带系数;其次,分别计算这些子带系数间的结构信息比较算子,以此作为描述图像结构相关性的统计特征;进而,结合空间域亮度均值减损对比归一化(Mean Subtracted Contrast Normalized,MSCN)系数及其邻域系数的统计特征,分别构造相应的无参考图像质量评价模型和图像失真类型识别模型;最后,在LIVE等图像质量评价数据库上进行了大量的实验仿真.仿真结果表明,评价模型的评价结果与人类主观评价具有非常高的相关性,与当今主流评价算法相比非常具有竞争性.     

Image quality assessment based on Prewitt magnitude

The goal of image quality assessment (IQA) research is to use computational models to calculate the quality of images consistently with subjective evaluations. In this paper, we propose a new image quality assessment (IQA) algorithm by combining Prewitt magnitude and regional mutual information (RMI) in HSV color space. The Prewitt operator is usually used for edge detection and can extract vertical edge more accurately than other operators. The HSV color space encapsulates information about a color in terms that are more natural and intuitive to humans. The proposed method PMRMI first transforms reference and distorted images from RGB color space into HSV color space and Prewitt magnitude is introduced to extract key edge features of each channel. Then the regional mutual information is calculated to measure the similarity of the two images. After that, a weighting method is utilized for better consistency with subjective evaluations. Therefore we get a single quality score. Experiments on various image distortion types demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can achieve better consistency with the subjective evaluations than PSNR and SSIM.     

Unsupervised blind image quality assessment based on joint structure and natural scene statistics features

Compared with the widely used supervised blind image quality assessment (BIQA) models, unsupervised BIQA models require little prior knowledge for calculating the objective quality scores of distorted images. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised BIQA method that aims to achieve both good performance and generalization capability with low computational complexity. Carefully selected and extensive structure and natural scene statistics (NSS) features can better represent image quality. First, we employ phase congruency (PC) and finely selected gradient magnitude map and Laplacian of Gaussian response (GM-LOG) features to represent image structure information. Second, we calculate the local mean-subtracted and contrast-normalized (MSCN) coefficients and the Karhunen–Loéve transform (KLT) coefficients to represent the naturalness of the distorted images. Last, multivariate Gaussian (MVG) model with joint features extracted from both the pristine images and the distorted images is adopted to calculate the objective image quality. Extensive experiments conducted on nine IQA databases demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better performance than the state-of-the-art BIQA methods.     

A no-reference perceptual image quality assessment database for learned image codecs

The drastic growth of research in image compression, especially deep learning-based image compression techniques, poses new challenges to objective image quality assessment (IQA). Typical artifacts encountered in the emerging image codecs are significantly different from that produced by traditional block-based codecs, leading to inapplicability of the existing objective IQA algorithms. Towards advancing the development of objective IQA algorithms for recent compression artifacts, we built a learning-based compressed image quality assessment (LCIQA) database involving traditional block-based image codecs, hybrid neural network based image codecs, convolutional neural network based and generative adversarial network (GAN) based end-to-end optimized image coding approaches. Our study confirms the statistical difference and human perception difference between reconstructions of learned compression and traditional block-based compression. We propose a two-step deep learning model for learning-based compressed image quality assessment. Extensive experiments on LCIQA database demonstrate that our proposed model performs better than other counterparts on learning-based compressed images, especially on GAN compressed images, and achieves competitive performance to the state-of-the-art IQA metrics on traditional compressed images.     

Image quality assessment based on regions of interest

Most methods in the literature of image quality assessment (IQA) use whole image information for measuring image quality. However, human perception does not always use this criterion to assess the quality of images. Individuals usually provide their opinions by considering only some parts of an image, called regions of interest. Based on this hypothesis, in this research work, a segmentation technique is initially employed to obtain a bi-level image map composed of the foreground and background information. A patch selection strategy is then proposed to choose some particular patches based on the foreground information as the regions of interest for IQA. Three recent IQA methods in the literature are considered to demonstrate the improvement in IQA when using only the extracted regions of interest. To evaluate the impact of the proposed patch selection strategy in various IQA metrics, three publicly available datasets were used for experiments. Experimental results have revealed that our proposal, based on the regions of interest, can improve quality measures of three IQA methods.     

Color image quality assessment based on sparse representation and reconstruction residual

Image quality assessment (IQA) is a fundamental problem in image processing. While in practice almost all images are represented in the color format, most of the current IQA metrics are designed in gray-scale domain. Color influences the perception of image quality, especially in the case where images are subject to color distortions. With this consideration, this paper presents a novel color image quality index based on Sparse Representation and Reconstruction Residual (SRRR). An overcomplete color dictionary is first trained using natural color images. Then both reference and distorted images are represented using the color dictionary, based on which two feature maps are constructed to measure structure and color distortions in a holistic manner. With the consideration that the feature maps are insensitive to image contrast change, the reconstruction residuals are computed and used as a complementary feature. Additionally, luminance similarity is also incorporated to produce the overall quality score for color images. Experiments on public databases demonstrate that the proposed method achieves promising performance in evaluating traditional distortions, and it outperforms the existing metrics when used for quality evaluation of color-distorted images.     

Blind omnidirectional image quality assessment with representative features and viewport oriented statistical features

With the development of information technologies, various types of streaming images are generated, such as videos, graphics, Virtual Reality (VR)/omnidirectional images (OIs), etc. Among them, the OIs usually have a broader view and a higher resolution, which provides human an immersive visual experience in a head-mounted display. However, the current image quality assessment works cannot achieve good performance without considering representative human visual features and visual viewing characteristics of OIs, which limited OIs’ further development. Motivated by the above problem, this work proposes a blind omnidirectional image quality assessment (BOIQA) model based on representative features and viewport oriented statistical features. Specifically, we apply the local binary pattern operator to encoder the cross-channel color information, and apply the weighted LBP to extract the structural features. Then the local natural scene statistics (NSS) features are extracted by using the viewport sampling to boost the performance. Finally, we apply support vector regression to predict the OIs’ quality score, and experimental results on CVIQD2018 and OIQA2018 Databases prove that the proposed model achieves better performance than state-of-the-art OIQA models.     

Blind image quality assessment in the contourlet domain

No-reference/blind image quality assessment (NR-IQA/BIQA) algorithms play an important role in image evaluation, as they can assess the quality of an image automatically, only using the distorted image whose quality is being assessed. Among the existing NR-IQA/BIQA methods, natural scene statistic (NSS) models which can be expressed in different bandpass domains show good consistency with human subjective judgments of quality.In this paper, we create new ‘quality-aware’ features: the energy differences of the sub-band coefficients across scales via contourlet transform, and propose a new NR-IQA/BIQA model that operates on natural scene statistics in the contourlet domain. Prior to applying the contourlet transform, we apply two preprocessing steps that help to create more information-dense, low-entropy representations. Specifically, we transform the picture into the CIELAB color space and gradient magnitude map. Then, a number of ‘quality-aware’ features are discovered in the contourlet transform domain: the energy of the sub-band coefficients within scales, and the energy differences between scales, as well as measurements of the statistical relationships of pixels across scales. A detailed analysis is conducted to show how different distortions affect the statistical characteristics of these features, and then features are fed to a support vector regression (SVR) model which learns to predict image quality. Experimental results show that the proposed method has high linearity against human subjective perception, and outperforms the state-of-the-art NR-IQA models.     

Toward an unsupervised blind stereoscopic 3D image quality assessment using joint spatial and frequency representations

Existing blind stereoscopic 3D (S3D) image quality assessment (IQA) metrics usually require supervised learning methods to predict S3D image quality, which limits their applicability in practice. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised blind S3D IQA metric that utilizes the joint spatial and frequency representations of visual perception. The metric proposed in this work was inspired by the binocular visual mechanism; furthermore, it is unsupervised and does not require subject-rated samples for training. To be more specific, first, the various binocular quality-aware features in spatial and frequency domains are extracted from the monocular and cyclopean views of natural S3D image patches. Subsequently, these features are utilized to establish a pristine multivariate Gaussian (MVG) model to characterize natural S3D image regularities. Finally, with the learned MVG model, the final quality score for a distorted S3D image can be yielded using a Bhattacharyya-like distance. Our experimental results illustrate that, compared to related existing metrics, the devised metric achieves competitive prediction performance.