Marco V. Bernardo

HDR image compression: A new challenge for objective quality metrics

High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging is able to capture a wide range of luminance values, closer to what the human visual system can perceive. It is believed by many that HDR is a technology that will revolutionize TV and cinema industry similar to how color television did. However, the complexity of HDR requires reinvention of the whole chain from capture to display. In this paper, HDR images compressed with the upcoming JPEG XT HDR image coding standard are used to investigate the correlation between thirteen well known full-reference metrics and perceived quality of HDR content. The metrics are benchmarked using ground truth subjective scores collected during quality evaluations performed on a Dolby Pulsar HDR monitor. Results demonstrate that objective quality assessment of HDR image compression is challenging. Most of the tested metrics, with exceptions of HDR-VDP-2 and FSIM computed for luma component, poorly predict human perception of visual quality.

Fusing iris and periocular information for cross-sensor recognition

Announcement of an iris and periocular dataset, with 10 different mobile setups.Mobile biometric recognition approach based on iris and periocular information.Improvements from a sensor-specific color calibration technique are reported.Biometric recognition feasibility over mobile cross-sensor setups is shown.Preferable mobile setups are pointed out. In recent years, the usage of mobile devices has increased substantially, as have their capabilities and applications. Extending biometric technologies to these gadgets is desirable because it would facilitate biometric recognition almost anytime, anywhere, and by anyone. The present study focuses on biometric recognition in mobile environments using iris and periocular information as the main traits. Our study makes three main contributions, as follows. (1) We demonstrate the utility of an iris and periocular dataset, which contains images acquired with 10 different mobile setups and the corresponding iris segmentation data. This dataset allows us to evaluate iris segmentation and recognition methods, as well as periocular recognition techniques. (2) We report the outcomes of device-specific calibration techniques that compensate for the different color perceptions inherent in each setup. (3) We propose the application of well-known iris and periocular recognition strategies based on classical encoding and matching techniques, as well as demonstrating how they can be combined to overcome the issues associated with mobile environments.

Performance evaluation of the emerging JPEG XT image compression standard

The upcoming JPEG XT is under development for High Dynamic Range (HDR) image compression. This standard encodes a Low Dynamic Range (LDR) version of the HDR image generated by a Tone-Mapping Operator (TMO) using the conventional JPEG coding as a base layer and encodes the extra HDR information in a residual layer. This paper studies the performance of the three profiles of JPEG XT (referred to as profiles A, B and C) using a test set of six HDR images. Four TMO techniques were used for the base layer image generation to assess the influence of the TMOs on the performance of JPEG XT profiles. Then, the HDR images were coded with different quality levels for the base layer and for the residual layer. The performance of each profile was evaluated using Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Feature SIMilarity Index (FSIM), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and CIEDE2000 color difference objective metrics. The evaluation results demonstrate that profiles A and B lead to similar saturation of quality at the higher bit rates, while profile C exhibits no saturation. Profiles B and C appear to be more dependent on TMOs used for the base layer compared to profile A.

Iris Recognition: Preliminary Assessment about the Discriminating Capacity of Visible Wavelength Data

The human iris supports contact less data acquisition and can be imaged covertly. These factors give raise to the possibility of performing biometric recognition procedure with-out subjects’ knowledge and in uncontrolled data acquisition scenarios. The feasibility of this type of recognition has been receiving increasing attention, as is of particular interest in visual surveillance, computer forensics, threat assessment, and other security areas. In this paper we stress the role played by the spectrum of the visible light used in the acquisition process and assess the discriminating iris patterns that are likely to be acquired according to three factors: type of illuminant, it’s luminance, and levels of iris pigmentation. Our goal is to perceive and quantify the conditions that appear to enable the biometric recognition process with enough confidence.

A study on the user perception to color variations

A study on the perceived quality of images displayed with color changes is presented. Under the D65 standard illuminant colors are changed in the CIE 1976 (L*a*b*) color space, with the application of a predefined chromatic error ΔE*ab. The colors were initially divided into clusters with the K-Means algorithm. Each color cluster is shifted by the predefined chromatic error with a random direction in a*b* chromatic coordinates. Applying the ΔE*ab errors of 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 units to the five hyperspectral images a set of modified images was collected. Those images were shown to individuals, that were asked to rank those images quality based on their naturalness. The Medium Opinion Scores was computed and allowed to test and quantify the sensibility to color changes.

Impact of Tone-mapping Algorithms on Subjective and Objective Face Recognition in HDR Images

Crowdsourcing is a popular tool for conducting subjective evaluations in uncontrolled environments and at low cost. In this paper, a crowdsourcing study is conducted to investigate the impact of High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging on subjective face recognition accuracy. For that purpose, a dataset of HDR images of people depicted in high-contrast lighting conditions was created and their faces were manually cropped to construct a probe set of faces. Crowdsourcing-based face recognition was conducted for five differently tone-mapped versions of HDR faces and were compared to face recognition in a typical Low Dynamic Range alternative. A similar experiment was also conducted using three automatic face recognition algorithms. The comparative analysis results of face recognition by human subjects through crowdsourcing and machine vision face recognition show that HDR imaging affects the recognition results of human and computer vision approaches differently.

Specific chromatic errors: A quality assessment

A study on the perceived quality of images displayed with color changes is presented. Initially, two hyperspectral images colors were represented in the CIE 1976 (L*a*b*) color space under the D65 standard illuminant. The colors of each image were divided into four clusters with the application of the K-Means algorithm. A new set of images was created changing only one of the four color clusters. The color change results from the application of a predefined chromatic error to the chromatic coordinates (a*, b*) of all pixels in the cluster. Errors of 6, 9, 12 and 15 ΔE*ab units were applied, using two different directions for each color cluster. These images were displayed for individuals visualization, that were asked to rank their quality based on their naturalness. The Mean Opinion Scores was computed and allowed to test and quantify the sensitivity to specific color changes.

Holographic representation: Hologram plane vs. object plane

Abstract Digital holography allows the recording, storage and subsequent reconstruction of both amplitude and phase of the light field scattered by an object. This is accomplished by recording interference patterns that preserve the properties of the original object field essential for 3D visualization, the so-called holograms. Digital holography refers to the acquisition of holograms with a digital sensor, typically a CCD or a CMOS camera, and to the reconstruction of the 3D object field using numerical methods. In the current work, the different representations of digital holographic information in the hologram and in the object planes are studied. The coding performance of the different complex field representations, notably Amplitude-Phase and Real-Imaginary, in both the hologram plane and the object plane, is assessed using both computer generated and experimental holograms. The HEVC intra main coding profile is used for the compression of the different representations in both planes, either for experimental holograms or computer generated holograms. The HEVC intra compression in the object plane outperforms encoding in the hologram plane. Furthermore, encoding computer generated holograms in the object plane has a larger benefit than the same encoding over the experimental holograms. This difference was expected, since experimental holograms are affected by a larger negative influence of speckle noise, resulting in a loss of compression efficiency. This work emphasizes the possibility of holographic coding on the object plane, instead of the common encoding in the hologram plane approach. Moreover, this possibility allows direct visualization of the Object Plane Amplitude in a regular 2D display without any transformation methods. The complementary phase information can easily be used to render 3D features such as depth map, multi-view or even holographic interference patterns for further 3D visualization depending on the display technology.

Benchmarking coding standards for digital holography represented on the object plane

Digital holography is a growing field that owes its success to the provided three-dimensional imaging representation. This is achieved by encoding the wave field transmitted or scattered by an object in the form of an interference pattern with a reference beam. While in conventional imaging systems it is usually impossible to recover the correct focused image from a defocused one, with digital holography the image can be numerically retrieved at any distance from the hologram. Digital holography also allows the reconstruction of multiple objects at different depths. The complex object field at the hologram plane can be separated on real and imaginary, or amplitude and phase components for further compression. It could be inferred that more inter-component redundancies exist in real and imaginary information than in the amplitude and phase information. Also, several compression schemes, like lossless compression, lossy compression, based on subsampling, quantization, and transformation, mainly using wavelets were considered. The benchmark of the main available image coding standard solutions like JPEG, JPEG 2000, and the intra coding modes available on MPEG-2, H264/AVC and HEVC video codecs were also analyzed for digital holographic data compression on the hologram plane. In the current work, the benchmark of the main available image coding standard solutions JPEG, JPEG-XT, JPEG 2000 and the intra mode of HEVC, are performed for digital holographic data represented on the object plane, instead of the hologram plane. This study considers Real-Imaginary and Amplitude-Phase representations. As expected Real, Imaginary and Amplitude information present very similar compression performance and are coded very efficiently with the different standards. However, the phase information requires much higher bitrates (3/4 bpp more) to reach similar quality levels. Moreover, the Amplitude information results in slightly larger bitrates for the same quality level than real or imaginary information. Comparing the different standards, the HEVC intra main coding profile is a very efficient model and outperforms the other standards. Furthermore, JPEG 2000 results in very similar compression performance. A comparison with studies where coding was performed on the hologram plane will reveal the advantages of coding on the object plane. Hence, becomes evident that future representation standards should consider the representation of digital holograms on the object plane instead of the hologram plane.

Point cloud subjective evaluation methodology based on reconstructed surfaces

Point clouds have been gaining importance as a solution to the problem of efficient representation of 3D geometric and visual information. They are commonly represented by large amounts of data, and compression schemes are important for their manipulation transmission and storing. However, the selection of appropriate compression schemes requires effective quality evaluation. In this work a subjective quality evaluation of point clouds using a surface representation is analyzed. Using a set of point cloud data objects encoded with the popular octree pruning method with different qualities, a subjective evaluation was designed. The point cloud geometry was presented to observers in the form of a movie showing the 3D Poisson reconstructed surface without textural information with the point of view changing in time. Subjective evaluations were performed in three different laboratories. Scores obtained from each test were correlated and no statistical differences were observed. Scores were also correlated with previous subjective tests and a good correlation was obtained when compared with mesh rendering in 2D monitors. Moreover, the results were correlated with state of the art point cloud objective metrics revealing poor correlation. Likewise, the correlation with a subjective test using a different representation of the point cloud data also showed poor correlation. These results suggest the need for more reliable objective quality metrics and further studies on adequate point cloud data representations.