The two-dimensional quality metric Peak-Signal-To-Noise-Ratio (PSNR) is often used to evaluate the quality of coding schemes for different types of light field based 3D-images, e.g. integral imaging or multi-view. The metric results in a single accumulated quality value for the whole 3D-image. Evaluating single views -- seen from specific viewing angles -- gives a quality matrix that present the 3D-image quality as a function of viewing angle. However, these two approaches do not capture all aspects of the induced distortion in a coded 3D-image. We have previously shown coding schemes of similar kind for which coding artifacts are distributed differently with respect to the 3D-image's depth. In this paper we propose a novel metric that captures the depth distribution of coding-induced distortion. Each element in the resulting quality vector corresponds to the quality at a specific depth. First we introduce the proposed full-reference metric and the operations on which it is based. Second, the experimental setup is presented. Finally, the metric is evaluated on a set of differently coded 3D-images and the results are compared, both with previously proposed quality metrics and with visual inspection.

Date Published: 29 February 2008
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 6803, Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XIX, 680307 (29 February 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.766256

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6803:
Stereoscopic Displays and Applications XIX
Andrew J. Woods; Nicolas S. Holliman; John O. Merritt, Editor(s)