Towards a perceptual quality metric for color stereo images

In this paper, we propose a quality metric for color stereo images. The concept of our metric is inspired by the behavior of simple and complex cells located in the primary visual cortex. These cells are responsible for merging left and right retinal images. To replicate the task performed by these cells, we adopted an approach based on spatial-frequency transform with the processing of selective orientations. From that, a model that calculates the binocular energy contained in the left and right retinal images has been proposed. The amplitude variation of the binocular energy defines the quality criterion of the reconstructed depth within the Human Visual System (HVS). Finally, from the experimental results, the used criterion seems to be correlated to human judgment obtained by psychophysical tests.

[1]  David J. Fleet,et al.  Neural encoding of binocular disparity: Energy models, position shifts and phase shifts , 1996, Vision Research.

[2]  Patrick Le Callet,et al.  Stereoscopic images quality assessment , 2007, 2007 15th European Signal Processing Conference.

[3]  Patrick Le Callet,et al.  Using disparity for quality assessment of stereoscopic images , 2008, 2008 15th IEEE International Conference on Image Processing.

[4]  G. F. Cooper,et al.  The spatial selectivity of the visual cells of the cat , 1969, The Journal of physiology.

[5]  G. Peyré Géométrie multi-échelles pour les images et les textures , 2005 .

[6]  Yuukou Horita,et al.  Stereoscopic image quality prediction , 2009, 2009 International Workshop on Quality of Multimedia Experience.

[7]  I. Ohzawa,et al.  Stereoscopic depth discrimination in the visual cortex: neurons ideally suited as disparity detectors. , 1990, Science.

[8]  Philip Corriveau,et al.  Video Quality Experts Group , 2005 .

[9]  Guoliang Fan,et al.  Pseudocepstrum for assessing stereo quality of retinal images , 2003, The Thrity-Seventh Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems & Computers, 2003.

[10]  Nick Holliman,et al.  Stereoscopic image quality metrics and compression , 2008, Electronic Imaging.

[11]  D. Hubel,et al.  Stereoscopic Vision in Macaque Monkey: Cells sensitive to Binocular Depth in Area 18 of the Macaque Monkey Cortex , 1970, Nature.