Subjective Evaluation of Spatial Resolution and Quantization Noise Tradeoffs

Most full-reference fidelity/quality metrics compare the original image to a distorted image at the same resolution assuming a fixed viewing condition. However, in many applications, such as video streaming, due to the diversity of channel capacities and display devices, the viewing distance and the spatiotemporal resolution of the displayed signal may be adapted in order to optimize the perceived signal quality. For example, at low bitrate coding applications an observer may prefer to reduce the resolution or increase the viewing distance to reduce the visibility of the compression artifacts. The tradeoff between resolution/viewing conditions and visibility of compression artifacts requires new approaches for the evaluation of image quality that account for both image distortions and image size. In order to better understand such tradeoffs, we conducted subjective tests using two representative still image coders, JPEG and JPEG 2000. Our results indicate that an observer would indeed prefer a lower spatial resolution (at a fixed viewing distance) in order to reduce the visibility of the compression artifacts, but not all the way to the point where the artifacts are completely invisible. Moreover, the observer is willing to accept more artifacts as the image size decreases. The subjective test results we report can be used to select viewing conditions for coding applications. They also set the stage for the development of novel fidelity metrics. The focus of this paper is on still images, but it is expected that similar tradeoffs apply to video.      

Analysis of Perception of Motion in Television Signals and its Application to Bandwidth Compression

The method and results are reported of subjective assessment tests on the perception of motion in television signals. Discussed are applications of these results to the transmission technique for the difference between two adjacent frame signals. The main results are as follows. 1) Smoothness of motion is lost by field-repeating or frame-repeating TV signals, unless motion is slow. The just perceptible velocity and acceptable limit of velocity are determined by subjective tests. The velocity of moving objects should be very low in order to obtain smooth motion. 2) The precision required in separating the standard television signal into stationary and moving parts is derived from the just perceptible velocity in 1). It is about 1/3 of a Nyquist interval; that is, equivalent to a viewing angle of 45 s, when the viewing distance is 4 × (height of picture). 3) The apparent Gaussian noise level increases by 1 ∼ 3 dB when television pictures are field-repeated. On the other hand, it decreases in frame-repeated pictures, provided that the number of repetitions is small. 4) From subjective assessment of the degradation of picture quality caused by blurring of the moving part, it becomes clear that the bandwidth of the signal of the moving part can readily be reduced by a factor of 3.5.     

基于Unity3D的可变视点数立体图像合成算法

针对当前自由立体3D显示器的最佳观看距离固定和无法灵活调的等问题,本文在Unity3D平台上采用Cg语言编程,提出了可变视点数立体图像合成算法。该算法根据最佳观看距离与视点数之间的关系,调整光栅截距对应的像素点,实现了通过灵活改变视点数来改变自由立体3D显示的最佳观看距离。实验结果表明,通过此算法合成的立体图像可以调整显示的最佳观看距离,并且实验测得的视点数与计算所得的视点数误差较小。图像串扰较低、合成效率高,使观看者能在不同距离都能舒适观看立体图像。     

Do video coding impairments disturb the visual attention deployment?

The visual attention deployment in a visual scene is contingent upon a number of factors. The relationship between the observer's attention and the visual quality of the scene is investigated in this paper: can a video artifact disturb the observer's attention? To answer this question, two experiments have been conducted. First, eye-movements of human observers were recorded, while they watched ten video clips of natural scenes under a free-viewing task. These clips were more or less impaired by a video encoding scheme (H.264/AVC). The second experiment relies on the subjective rating of the quality of the video clips. A quality score was then assigned to each clip, indicating the extent to which the impairments were visible. The standardized method double stimulus impairment scale (DSIS) was used, meaning that each observer viewed the original clip followed by its impaired version. Both experimental results have conjointly been analyzed. Our results suggest that video artifacts have no influence on the deployment of visual attention, even though these artifacts have been judged by observers as at least annoying.     

A 3D video visual comfort evaluation method on the consistency of accommodation and convergence

With the development of three-dimensional (3D) technology, visual fatigue problems in 3D video have got more attention. In this paper, we combine the human vision characteristics and depth perception theory, and propose a 3D video visual comfort evaluation method on the consistency of accommodation and convergence, which evaluates the visual comfort from the quantitative perspective under different horizontal disparities and viewing distances. The experimental results show that the proposed evaluation method exhibits good consistency with the subjective assessment results. This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.61271315). E-mail:kanbc15@mails.jlu.edu.cn      

Short-Wave Infrared HgCdTe Electron Avalanche Photodiodes for Gated Viewing

Short-wave infrared (SWIR) HgCdTe electron avalanche photodiodes (eAPDs) with different doping profiles have been characterized for use in SWIR gated viewing systems. Gated viewing offers enhanced image contrast in scenes with clutter from the foreground or background. HgCdTe-based eAPDs show exponential gain–voltage characteristics and low excess noise and are, therefore, well suited for active imaging applications. The gain achievable at a fixed reverse voltage varies with the bandgap of the Hg_1?xCd_xTe detector material. We analyze current–voltage and gain–voltage plots measured on SWIR Hg_1?xCd_xTe eAPDs with x?=?0.45, corresponding to a cutoff wavelength of 2.55 μm at 150 K. The cutoff has been chosen as a trade-off between achievable APD gain and operating temperature for SWIR gated-viewing systems with target distances of about 1000 m. Focal plane arrays with a readout-integrated circuit featuring a fast internal clock have been built and their performance with respect to gated viewing applications has been evaluated on a laboratory demonstrator for short distances. Future plans for a field demonstrator for distances up to 1000 m are described briefly at the end.     

光栅3D显示视疲劳与视功能参数的关系

观看光栅3D显示的机理和人眼视觉生理存在矛盾 ,观看时间稍长将引起头痛、眼胀、复视等视疲 劳症状,选择恰当的生理指标对视疲劳进行客观评价对其预防和消除具有重要意义。本研究 探讨观看光栅 3D显示对双眼视功能参数的影响。通过视觉检查筛选出24名被试者,并随机分成两组进行 30分钟持续观 看光栅3D显示2D视频和3D视频的实验。在观看实验前后分别对被试者进行视功能参数—双眼 融合范围、 AC/A值和CFF值的测量,并完成视疲劳和视觉诱导晕动症主观问卷。实验验证了融合范围 、AC/A值和 CFF值都随着视疲劳和VIMS的加剧而降低。2D组观看前后融合范围无差异,3D组观看前 后融合范围有 显著区别,而2D组和3D组的AC/A值和CFF值在观看前后都有显著差异。3D观看前后融合 范围、AC/A 值、CFF值降低幅度均比2D更大。实验结果表明,3D比2D造成了更严重的视疲劳和VIMS ,而晕动症是导致观看光栅3D显示不舒适的主要原因。     

光丝位置对铝合金激光填丝焊接过程的影响

为了明晰光丝距离对激光填丝焊接过程影响规律, 采用高速摄像、外观检查、宏观金相等方法, 对3种光束模式下不同光丝距离与激光堆焊关系进行了理论分析和实验验证, 得到了光丝距离对焊丝熔化、熔滴过渡、熔池波动和焊缝凝固的稳定性影响数据。结果表明, 光丝位置由相交(-5mm)向相离(+5mm)变化时, 熔滴过渡经历"液滴→液滴+液桥→液桥→液滴+液桥"阶段; 相同光丝距离时, 单光束激光模式、双光束激光串行模式和双光束并行模式的焊缝熔深依次降低, 甚至出现焊缝偏移和无熔深现象; 单光束模式和双光束串行模式对焊丝熔化和熔池的影响规律近似, 但双光束并行模式下具有特殊性; 单光束激光焊接时, 随着离焦量的增加, 焊缝的熔深由最大值409.8μm迅速减小到282.6μm; 双光束激光串行模式时, 焊缝的最大熔深仅为328.4μm, 随着离焦量降低而减小, 但正离焦量为焊缝截面呈现不对称状态; 双光束激光并行焊接模式时, 焊丝偏向小功率激光束时, 焊缝无熔深; 随着焊丝向大功率激光束移动, 形成仅有226.5μm小熔深焊缝。该研究为铝合金激光增材和焊接提供了参考。     

扫描体素显示器

传统的立体显示器（stereoscopic display）需要观众人为地将眼睛的焦距固定在某一个距离,不断改变左、右眼收敛点来观察不同距离的物体,因此会造成眼疲劳和不适感,也降低了图像质量。立体显示器（Volumetric display）可以克服这个问题,但仅限于一定观看距离内和一定调节能力的小物体;同时,它们也不能正确地提供闭塞信号。本文描述了一种可能的解决办法——多平面扫描体素显示器（multi—planar scanned voxel display）。     

Titanium sputter deposition at low pressures and long throwdistances

Sputter deposition of titanium into trench and via topography has been studied under conditions of pressure as low as 0.3 mTorr (0.04 Pa) for long (30 cm) and short (9 cm) throw distances. Film resistivity and deposition rates at both distances have been measured for pressures from 0.3 mTorr up to 5 mTorr (0.67 Pa). Pinhole experiments have been used to examine the evolution of the angular distribution of sputtered flux as a function of pressure and distance. The experimental results show that by increasing the throw distance and reducing pressure, the bottom coverage in high aspect ratio topographical features may be increased to almost 90% but thickness nonuniformity under these conditions remains a significant problem due to the size of the target. We have tested for the presence of resputtering in the highly energetic, low collision regime which arises at low pressure and no resputtered material has been detected     

基于氧气光谱吸收的被动测距中无云天空背景辐射特性研究

氧气吸收率是利用氧气A 吸收带进行被动测距技术计算的核心,将包含氧气A 吸收带在内的无云天空背景辐射和黑体辐射作为研究对象,利用CART 软件模拟计算了不同观测天顶角、不同时段、不同太阳天顶角的无云天空背景氧气吸收率分布,并与不同观测天顶角、不同距离下的黑体辐射氧气吸收率进行了比较分析,结果表明:当探测距离大于3 km 时,黑体辐射的氧气吸收率大于无云天空背景辐射氧气吸收率,所以根据不同观测条件设置被动测距的氧气吸收率阈值,可提高对目标的探测概率,降低背景辐射对被动测距的影响。     

光栅式自由立体显示器空间视区建模与串扰计算

为了实现光栅式自由立体显示器的空间视区建模与串扰的理论计算,提出一种基于光学仿真软件Lighttools的空间视区模型建立与串扰计算方法。首先,在Lighttools中,以设计最佳观看位置(OVD)为轴心,建立3个空间平面探测器。然后,对探测平面上的照度仿真数据进行特征分析,得到空间视区的简化模型;分析简化模型与原始模型的空间线性和空间角度关系,得到空间视区在三维空间的几何分布。最后,依据视区模型的理论边界,计算各个视区范围内的串扰度。从而完成了视区与串扰两个参数的规范化与数字化,为自由立体显示器的设计和使用提供明确的理论指导。     

Study of the required crosspolar protection ratio in G-PAL TV FMsatellite transmissions planning

A study including simulation and a measurement campaign using live TV broadcast satellite signals and receiving commercial equipment has been carried out to investigate the required cross-polar protection ratio at the terrestrial receiving antenna for satellite transmission planning. This experiment provides useful and realistic results for efficient channel allocation in the spectrum band of broadcast satellite systems. Among them is the frequency offset required between cross-polar channels, depending on the cross-polar rejection at the receiving antenna, for a certain degree of video signal impairment due to the cross-polar channel interference effect, and taking into account the noise contribution to the signal. A worst case in frequency offset value, i.e., larger subjective impairment of the picture at equal carrier to noise ratio (CNR), has been detected around 5 MHz (near the chroma carrier in G-PAL system 4.43 MHz) only for high values of CNR. Different subjective degradation of the image due to cross-polar channel interference and noise has been observed, and their particular contributions to impairment have been evaluated     

Simultaneous 2D and 3D perception for stereoscopic displays based on polarized or active shutter glasses

Viewing stereoscopic 3D content is typically enabled either by using polarizing or active shutter glasses. In certain cases, some viewers may not wear viewing glasses and hence, it would be desirable to tune the stereoscopic 3D content so that it could be simultaneously watched with and without viewing glasses. In this paper we propose a video post-processing technique which enables good quality 3D and 2D perception of the same content. This is done through manipulation of one view by making it more similar to the other view to reduce the ghosting artifact perceived without viewing glasses while 3D perception is maintained. The proposed technique includes three steps: disparity selection, contrast adjustment, and low-pass filtering. The proposed approach was evaluated through an extensive series of subjective tests, which also revealed good adjustment parameters to suit viewing with and without viewing glasses with an acceptable 3D and 2D quality, respectively.     

Towards high efficiency video coding: Subjective evaluation of potential coding technologies

This paper describes the details and the results of the subjective quality evaluation performed at EPFL, as a contribution to the effort of the joint collaborative team on video coding (JCT-VC) for the definition of the high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard. The performance of twenty-seven coding technologies has been evaluated with respect to two H.264/MPEG-4 AVC anchors, for high definition (HD) test material. The test campaign involved a total of 494 naive observers and took place over a period of four weeks. While similar tests have been conducted as part of the standardization process of previous video coding technologies, the test campaign described in this paper is by far the most extensive in the history of video coding standardization. A detailed statistical analysis of the subjective results is provided. The results show high consistency and support an accurate comparison of the performance of the different coding technologies.     

The effect of viewer behavior on reception and viewing of UHF television

The effects of viewer behavior on the reception and viewing of UHF television are explored. By integrating the results from three new studies sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission's UHF Comparability Task Force with previous work it is possible to distinguish between factors that significantly influence UHF viewing and those which do not. The three new studies are: 1) a large public opinion survey by Louis Harris and Associates of 1587 households predicted to receive both UHF and VHF television; 2) measurements of the gain of television receiving systems in 49 households in northern Illinois by the Institute for Telecommunications Sciences (Boulder, CO); and 3) the use of television viewing data collected by The Arbitron Company to study the relationship between UHF television viewing and the type of channel selector. The conclusions reached are: 1) actual UHF reception is significantly poorer than that predicted by the conventional analytical techniques, and the primary cause appears to be inadequate gain in the receiving systems viewers choose to install; 2) actual VHF reception is at least consistent with (if not better than) the conventional predictions; 3) viewers are not biased in their perceptions of UHF reception quality; and 4) the type of channel selector used by a viewer appears to have no impact on the amount of UHF television watched.     

The development of a high definition television (HDTV) terrestrialbroadcasting emission mask

This paper analyzes the case of HDTV channels, upper and lower, first adjacent to an existing NTSC station assignment and considers the interference from an HDTV adjacent channel, spillover spectra as undesirable co-channel interference into the NTSC channel. A subjective weighting function is developed for random noise interference to NTSC images at the video baseband level. A filter function representing the human visual system at specified viewing distances as a function of image height is developed, first for monochrome, and then extended to color images. The baseband subjective weighting function is modified to include the process of television carrier modulation and demodulation. This carrier modified weighting function is then used to evaluate typical spillover spectra created by high power amplifiers when driven by a modulated digital HDTV signal. BTSC stereo audio (with SAP) is also included in the interference evaluation. Spectral out-of-band spillover limits are established based on the threshold of visibility of the interference as a function of the mileage separation between adjacent channel NTSC and HDTV stations. A high power bandpass filter and band elimination notches are included in the analysis. The results are then applied to two methods of determining spectral emission compliance: measurement of the out-of-band interference spectra with a weighting function, or alternatively, the use of an emission mask     

Influence of Distance Between Metal Squares in Checkerboard Patterns on Transmittance Characteristics in the Infrared Region

In this study, we investigated the influence of the distance between metal squares in self-complementary metal checkerboard patterns (CPs) on the transmittance characteristics in the infrared (IR) region. Transmittance characteristics of CPs in the IR region are rarely studied. Here, to clarify experimentally the influence of reactance variation in CPs on the transmittance in the IR region, we fabricated self-complementary metallic CPs with differing distances between the metal squares, and their transmittances were measured. Initially, two types of capacitive CPs (C-CPs) and three types of inductive CPs (I-CPs) were fabricated, and their IR transmittances were measured. The CPs were configured to have different gaps or overlapping distances between the metal squares for the C-CPs and I-CPs, respectively. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of the distance configuration of CPs consisting of both C-CPs and I-CPs, on the transmittances of x- and y-polarized incident IR electromagnetic waves. The evaluated hybrid CPs, referred to as anisotropic CPs (A-CPs), were fabricated with horizontal metal patterns in contact with each other and separated vertical components. The results demonstrated that the transmittance depends on sensitively to the gap or the overlapping distance between the metal squares of the self-complementary metallic CPs. Moreover, we observed remarkable changes in the transmittance associated with the A-CPs, resulting from the polarization of the incident IR electromagnetic waves.     

金刚石基底上制备(002)AlN薄膜的研究

首先采用微波等离子体化学气相沉积(MPCVD)方法,在O2/H2/CH4混合气体气氛下利用大功率微波在(100)Si片上生长出了异质外延金刚石膜,X-射线衍射(XRD)、拉曼光谱和场发射扫描电子显微镜(FESEM)对薄膜的表征分析结果表明,制备的金刚石膜具有很高的金刚石相纯度,且晶粒排列紧密;继而采用射频磁控反应溅射法,在抛光的金刚石基底上成功制备了高C轴择优取向的氮化铝(AlN)薄膜,研究了不同的溅射气压、靶基距对AlN薄膜制备的影响,XRD检测结果表明,溅射气压低,靶基距短,有利于AlN(002)面择优取向,相反则更有利于AlN薄膜的(103)面和(102)面择优取向;研究了AlN薄膜在以N终止的金刚石基底和纯净金刚石基底两种表面状态上的生长机制,结果发现,以N终止的金刚石基底非常有利于AlN(002)面择优取向生长;从Al-N化学键的形成以及溅射粒子平均自由程的角度,探讨了其对AlN薄膜择优取向的影响。