Quality assessment for JPEG images based on difference of power spectrum distribution

Abstract

No-reference quality assessment aims at designing objective assessment criteria consistent to subjective perceived quality without any knowledge about reference image. This paper proposes a no-reference quality assessment algorithm specific to JPEG images. Blocking artifact in JPEG images is caused by the block based quantization of frequency coefficients, which is equivalent to applying low pass filtering in each block. In view of this idea, the algorithm in this paper was used to realize the quality assessment of JPEG images by quantizing the difference of power spectrum distribution between inner-block and inter-block. The assessment method proposed in this paper owns low algorithm complexity, clear physical meanings, free from learning and training and other advantages. Compared with most presented algorithms, the assessment results of proposed algorithm demonstrate a higher correlation to the subjective perceived quality.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

image quality assessment / blocking artifact / power spectrum distribution

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg