The evaluation of sensor's performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is a big challenge for both camera phone manufacturers and customers. The first ones want to predict and assess the performance of their pixel while the seconds require being able to benchmark raw sensors and processing pipes. The Reference SNR metric is very sensitive to crosstalk whereas for low-light issue, the weight of sensitivity should be increased. To evaluate noise on final image, the analytical calculation of SNR on luminance channel has been performed by taking into account noise correlation due to the processing pipe. However, this luminance noise does not match the perception of human eye which is also sensitive to chromatic noise. Alternative metrics have been investigated to find a visual noise metric closer to the human visual system. They have been computed on five pixel technologies nodes with different sensor resolutions and viewing conditions.

Date Published: 24 January 2011
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7876, Digital Photography VII, 78760Q (24 January 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.870828

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7876:
Digital Photography VII
Francisco H. Imai; Feng Xiao, Editor(s)