No reference color image quality measures

Abstract

Color image quality assessment is essential in evaluating the performance of color image enhancement and retrieval algorithms. Much effort has been made in recent years to develop objective image quality metrics that correlate with perceived quality measurements. Unfortunately, only limited success has been achieved [1]. In this paper we present: a) a new contrast based grayscale image quality measure: Root Mean Enhancement (RME); b) a color RME contrast measure CRME which explores the three dimensional contrast relationships of the RGB color channels; c) a color measure Color Qiality Enhancement (CQE) which is based on the linear combination of colorfulness, sharpness and contrast. Computer simulations show that the new measures may help to evaluate color image quality and choose the optimal operating parameters in color image processing systems. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented measures by using the TID2008 database. We also compare the presented measures with subjective evaluation Mean Opinion Score (MOS). Experimental results show good correlations between the presented measures and MOS.