Image quality criterion based on the cancellation of the masked noise

This paper investigates the development of a new image quality criterion based on the psychovisual model of tuned channels and more particularly the phenomenon of masking. The masking model parameters have been evaluated by psychovisual tests assuming a logarithmic relationship between the visibility threshold and the contrast value of the background for a given perceptual channel. The masking has the consequence that only a part of the noise of a noisy image is really visible and affects the visual quality of the image. The idea of the proposed criterion is to evaluate the image quality after the cancellation of the masked noise defined as the invisible noise. The criterion has been used in order to compare different coders and different post-processings of noisy images.