Study of Subjective Data Integrity for Image Quality Data Sets with Consumer Camera Content

We need data sets of images and subjective scores to develop robust no reference (or blind) visual quality metrics for consumer applications. These applications have many uncontrolled variables because the camera creates the original media and the impairment simultaneously. We do not fully understan...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jakub Nawała, Margaret H. Pinson, Mikołaj Leszczuk, Lucjan Janowski
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-02-01
Series:Journal of Imaging
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2313-433X/6/3/7
Description
Summary:We need data sets of images and subjective scores to develop robust no reference (or blind) visual quality metrics for consumer applications. These applications have many uncontrolled variables because the camera creates the original media and the impairment simultaneously. We do not fully understand how this impacts the integrity of our subjective data. We put forward two new data sets of images from consumer cameras. The first data set, CCRIQ2, uses a strict experiment design, more suitable for camera performance evaluation. The second data set, VIME1, uses a loose experiment design that resembles the behavior of consumer photographers. We gather subjective scores through a subjective experiment with 24 participants using the Absolute Category Rating method. We make these two new data sets available royalty-free on the Consumer Digital Video Library. We also present their integrity analysis (proposing one new approach) and explore the possibility of combining CCRIQ2 with its legacy counterpart. We conclude that the loose experiment design yields unreliable data, despite adhering to international recommendations. This suggests that the classical subjective study design may not be suitable for studies using consumer content. Finally, we show that Ho&#223;feld&#8722;Schatz&#8722;Egger <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mi>&#945;</mi> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> failed to detect important differences between the two data sets.
ISSN:2313-433X