Subjective Assessment of Image Compression Artefacts on Stereoscopic Display

Image and video quality are important to depict any pictorial information vividly and correctly. With the advancement of technology, we can produce high-quality images and can display those in advanced high-resolution displays. But as high-quality images continue to increase in size, transmitting these exceeds the limited bandwidth of display links. To cope, we need to compress the images but desire that the user cannot perceive any difference between the compressed and uncompressed images. In my thesis, psychophysical experiments with a flicker paradigm were undertaken to do a subjective assessment of the visibility of compression artefacts of two sets of images with two codecs viewed on a stereoscopic display. For one set of images the result shows that artefacts can be silenced in some stereo images relative to 2D while testing with the other set of images was inconclusive. This thesis documented evidence for silencing of artefacts in 3D displays. Other differences between stereoscopic and 2D presentation can be predicted but were not observed here (perhaps due to floor effects). Further large-scale subjective assessment with challenging images may help to get a concrete conclusion

Engineering data compendium. Human perception and performance. User's guide

The concept underlying the Engineering Data Compendium was the product of a research and development program (Integrated Perceptual Information for Designers project) aimed at facilitating the application of basic research findings in human performance to the design and military crew systems. The principal objective was to develop a workable strategy for: (1) identifying and distilling information of potential value to system design from the existing research literature, and (2) presenting this technical information in a way that would aid its accessibility, interpretability, and applicability by systems designers. The present four volumes of the Engineering Data Compendium represent the first implementation of this strategy. This is the first volume, the User's Guide, containing a description of the program and instructions for its use

Stereoscopic high dynamic range imaging

Two modern technologies show promise to dramatically increase immersion in virtual environments. Stereoscopic imaging captures two images representing the views of both eyes and allows for better depth perception. High dynamic range (HDR) imaging accurately represents real world lighting as opposed to traditional low dynamic range (LDR) imaging. HDR provides a better contrast and more natural looking scenes. The combination of the two technologies in order to gain advantages of both has been, until now, mostly unexplored due to the current limitations in the imaging pipeline. This thesis reviews both fields, proposes stereoscopic high dynamic range (SHDR) imaging pipeline outlining the challenges that need to be resolved to enable SHDR and focuses on capture and compression aspects of that pipeline. The problems of capturing SHDR images that would potentially require two HDR cameras and introduce ghosting, are mitigated by capturing an HDR and LDR pair and using it to generate SHDR images. A detailed user study compared four different methods of generating SHDR images. Results demonstrated that one of the methods may produce images perceptually indistinguishable from the ground truth. Insights obtained while developing static image operators guided the design of SHDR video techniques. Three methods for generating SHDR video from an HDR-LDR video pair are proposed and compared to the ground truth SHDR videos. Results showed little overall error and identified a method with the least error. Once captured, SHDR content needs to be efficiently compressed. Five SHDR compression methods that are backward compatible are presented. The proposed methods can encode SHDR content to little more than that of a traditional single LDR image (18% larger for one method) and the backward compatibility property encourages early adoption of the format. The work presented in this thesis has introduced and advanced capture and compression methods for the adoption of SHDR imaging. In general, this research paves the way for a novel field of SHDR imaging which should lead to improved and more realistic representation of captured scenes

Quality of Experience in Immersive Video Technologies

Over the last decades, several technological revolutions have impacted the television industry, such as the shifts from black & white to color and from standard to high-definition. Nevertheless, further considerable improvements can still be achieved to provide a better multimedia experience, for example with ultra-high-definition, high dynamic range & wide color gamut, or 3D. These so-called immersive technologies aim at providing better, more realistic, and emotionally stronger experiences. To measure quality of experience (QoE), subjective evaluation is the ultimate means since it relies on a pool of human subjects. However, reliable and meaningful results can only be obtained if experiments are properly designed and conducted following a strict methodology. In this thesis, we build a rigorous framework for subjective evaluation of new types of image and video content. We propose different procedures and analysis tools for measuring QoE in immersive technologies. As immersive technologies capture more information than conventional technologies, they have the ability to provide more details, enhanced depth perception, as well as better color, contrast, and brightness. To measure the impact of immersive technologies on the viewersâ QoE, we apply the proposed framework for designing experiments and analyzing collected subjectsâ ratings. We also analyze eye movements to study human visual attention during immersive content playback. Since immersive content carries more information than conventional content, efficient compression algorithms are needed for storage and transmission using existing infrastructures. To determine the required bandwidth for high-quality transmission of immersive content, we use the proposed framework to conduct meticulous evaluations of recent image and video codecs in the context of immersive technologies. Subjective evaluation is time consuming, expensive, and is not always feasible. Consequently, researchers have developed objective metrics to automatically predict quality. To measure the performance of objective metrics in assessing immersive content quality, we perform several in-depth benchmarks of state-of-the-art and commonly used objective metrics. For this aim, we use ground truth quality scores, which are collected under our subjective evaluation framework. To improve QoE, we propose different systems for stereoscopic and autostereoscopic 3D displays in particular. The proposed systems can help reducing the artifacts generated at the visualization stage, which impact picture quality, depth quality, and visual comfort. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these systems, we use the proposed framework to measure viewersâ preference between these systems and standard 2D & 3D modes. In summary, this thesis tackles the problems of measuring, predicting, and improving QoE in immersive technologies. To address these problems, we build a rigorous framework and we apply it through several in-depth investigations. We put essential concepts of multimedia QoE under this framework. These concepts not only are of fundamental nature, but also have shown their impact in very practical applications. In particular, the JPEG, MPEG, and VCEG standardization bodies have adopted these concepts to select technologies that were proposed for standardization and to validate the resulting standards in terms of compression efficiency

Change blindness: eradication of gestalt strategies

Arrays of eight, texture-defined rectangles were used as stimuli in a one-shot change blindness (CB) task where there was a 50% chance that one rectangle would change orientation between two successive presentations separated by an interval. CB was eliminated by cueing the target rectangle in the first stimulus, reduced by cueing in the interval and unaffected by cueing in the second presentation. This supports the idea that a representation was formed that persisted through the interval before being 'overwritten' by the second presentation (Landman et al, 2003 Vision Research 43149–164]. Another possibility is that participants used some kind of grouping or Gestalt strategy. To test this we changed the spatial position of the rectangles in the second presentation by shifting them along imaginary spokes (by ±1 degree) emanating from the central fixation point. There was no significant difference seen in performance between this and the standard task [F(1,4)=2.565, p=0.185]. This may suggest two things: (i) Gestalt grouping is not used as a strategy in these tasks, and (ii) it gives further weight to the argument that objects may be stored and retrieved from a pre-attentional store during this task

Camera positioning for 3D panoramic image rendering

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University London.Virtual camera realisation and the proposition of trapezoidal camera architecture are the two broad contributions of this thesis. Firstly, multiple camera and their arrangement constitute a critical component which affect the integrity of visual content acquisition for multi-view video. Currently, linear, convergence, and divergence arrays are the prominent camera topologies adopted. However, the large number of cameras required and their synchronisation are two of prominent challenges usually encountered. The use of virtual cameras can significantly reduce the number of physical cameras used with respect to any of the known camera structures, hence adequately reducing some of the other implementation issues. This thesis explores to use image-based rendering with and without geometry in the implementations leading to the realisation of virtual cameras. The virtual camera implementation was carried out from the perspective of depth map (geometry) and use of multiple image samples (no geometry). Prior to the virtual camera realisation, the generation of depth map was investigated using region match measures widely known for solving image point correspondence problem. The constructed depth maps have been compare with the ones generated using the dynamic programming approach. In both the geometry and no geometry approaches, the virtual cameras lead to the rendering of views from a textured depth map, construction of 3D panoramic image of a scene by stitching multiple image samples and performing superposition on them, and computation of virtual scene from a stereo pair of panoramic images. The quality of these rendered images were assessed through the use of either objective or subjective analysis in Imatest software. Further more, metric reconstruction of a scene was performed by re-projection of the pixel points from multiple image samples with a single centre of projection. This was done using sparse bundle adjustment algorithm. The statistical summary obtained after the application of this algorithm provides a gauge for the efficiency of the optimisation step. The optimised data was then visualised in Meshlab software environment, hence providing the reconstructed scene. Secondly, with any of the well-established camera arrangements, all cameras are usually constrained to the same horizontal plane. Therefore, occlusion becomes an extremely challenging problem, and a robust camera set-up is required in order to resolve strongly the hidden part of any scene objects. To adequately meet the visibility condition for scene objects and given that occlusion of the same scene objects can occur, a multi-plane camera structure is highly desirable. Therefore, this thesis also explore trapezoidal camera structure for image acquisition. The approach here is to assess the feasibility and potential of several physical cameras of the same model being sparsely arranged on the edge of an efficient trapezoid graph. This is implemented both Matlab and Maya. The quality of the depth maps rendered in Matlab are better in Quality

Une méthode pour l'évaluation de la qualité des images 3D stéréoscopiques.

Dans le contexte d'un intérêt grandissant pour les systèmes stéréoscopiques, mais sans méthodes reproductible pour estimer leur qualité, notre travail propose une contribution à la meilleure compréhension des mécanismes de perception et de jugement humains relatifs au concept multi-dimensionnel de qualité d'image stéréoscopique. Dans cette optique, notre démarche s'est basée sur un certain nombre d'outils : nous avons proposé un cadre adapté afin de structurer le processus d'analyse de la qualité des images stéréoscopiques, nous avons implémenté dans notre laboratoire un système expérimental afin de conduire plusieurs tests, nous avons crée trois bases de données d'images stéréoscopiques contenant des configurations précises et enfin nous avons conduit plusieurs expériences basées sur ces collections d'images. La grande quantité d'information obtenue par l'intermédiaire de ces expérimentations a été utilisée afin de construire un premier modèle mathématique permettant d'expliquer la perception globale de la qualité de la stéréoscopie en fonction des paramètres physiques des images étudiée.In a context of ever-growing interest in stereoscopic systems, but where no standardized algorithmic methods of stereoscopic quality assessment exist, our work stands as a step forward in the understanding of the human perception and judgment mechanisms related to the multidimensional concept of stereoscopic image quality. We used a series of tools in order to perform in-depth investigations in this direction: we proposed an adapted framework to structure the process of stereoscopic quality assessment, we implemented a stereoscopic system in our laboratory for performing various tests, we created three stereoscopic datasets with precise structures, and we performed several experimental studies using these datasets. The numerous experimental data obtained were used in order to propose a first mathematical framework for explaining the overall percept of stereoscopic quality in function of the physical parameters of the stereoscopic images under study.SAVOIE-SCD - Bib.électronique (730659901) / SudocGRENOBLE1/INP-Bib.électronique (384210012) / SudocGRENOBLE2/3-Bib.électronique (384219901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Real-time video-plus-depth content creation utilizing time-of-flight sensor - from capture to display

Recent developments in 3D camera technologies, display technologies and other related fields have been aiming to provide 3D experience for home user and establish services such as Three-Dimensional Television (3DTV) and Free-Viewpoint Television (FTV). Emerging multiview autostereoscopic displays do not require any eyewear and can be watched by multiple users at the same time, thus are very attractive for home environment usage. To provide a natural 3D impression, autostereoscopic 3D displays have been design to synthesize multi-perspective virtual views of a scene using Depth-Image-Based Rendering (DIBR) techniques. One key issue of DIBR is that scene depth information in a form of a depth map is required in order to synthesize virtual views. Acquiring this information is quite complex and challenging task and still an active research topic. In this thesis, the problem of dynamic 3D video content creation of real-world visual scenes is addressed. The work assumed data acquisition setting including Time-of-Flight (ToF) depth sensor and a single conventional video camera. The main objective of the work is to develop efficient algorithms for the stages of synchronous data acquisition, color and ToF data fusion, and final view-plus-depth frame formatting and rendering. The outcome of this thesis is a prototype 3DTV system capable for rendering live 3D video on a 3D autostereoscopic display. The presented system makes extensive use of the processing capabilities of modern Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in order to achieve real-time processing rates while providing an acceptable visual quality. Furthermore, the issue of arbitrary view synthesis is investigated in the context of DIBR and a novel approach based on depth layering is proposed. The proposed approach is applicable for general virtual views synthesis, i.e. in terms of different camera parameters such as position, orientation, focal length and varying sensors spatial resolutions. The experimental results demonstrate real-time capability of the proposed method even for CPU-based implementations. It compares favorably to other view synthesis methods in terms of visual quality, while being more computationally efficient

Optimization techniques for computationally expensive rendering algorithms

Realistic rendering in computer graphics simulates the interactions of light and surfaces. While many accurate models for surface reflection and lighting, including solid surfaces and participating media have been described; most of them rely on intensive computation. Common practices such as adding constraints and assumptions can increase performance. However, they may compromise the quality of the resulting images or the variety of phenomena that can be accurately represented. In this thesis, we will focus on rendering methods that require high amounts of computational resources. Our intention is to consider several conceptually different approaches capable of reducing these requirements with only limited implications in the quality of the results. The first part of this work will study rendering of time-­¿varying participating media. Examples of this type of matter are smoke, optically thick gases and any material that, unlike the vacuum, scatters and absorbs the light that travels through it. We will focus on a subset of algorithms that approximate realistic illumination using images of real world scenes. Starting from the traditional ray marching algorithm, we will suggest and implement different optimizations that will allow performing the computation at interactive frame rates. This thesis will also analyze two different aspects of the generation of anti-­¿aliased images. One targeted to the rendering of screen-­¿space anti-­¿aliased images and the reduction of the artifacts generated in rasterized lines and edges. We expect to describe an implementation that, working as a post process, it is efficient enough to be added to existing rendering pipelines with reduced performance impact. A third method will take advantage of the limitations of the human visual system (HVS) to reduce the resources required to render temporally antialiased images. While film and digital cameras naturally produce motion blur, rendering pipelines need to explicitly simulate it. This process is known to be one of the most important burdens for every rendering pipeline. Motivated by this, we plan to run a series of psychophysical experiments targeted at identifying groups of motion-­¿blurred images that are perceptually equivalent. A possible outcome is the proposal of criteria that may lead to reductions of the rendering budgets