The ability of an image region to hide or mask a target signal continues to play a key role in the design of numerous image-processing and vision applications. However, one of the challenges in designing an effective model of masking for natural images is the lack of ground-truth data. To address this issue, this paper describes a psychophysical study designed to obtain local contrast detection thresholds (masking maps) for a database of natural images. Via a three-alternative forced-choice experiment, we measured the thresholds for detecting 3.7 cycles/deg vertically oriented log-Gabor targets placed within each 85×85-pixel patch (1.9 deg patch) of 15 natural images from the CSIQ image database [Larson and Chandler, JEI, 2010]. Thus, for each image, we obtained a masking map in which each entry in the map denotes the RMS contrast threshold for detecting the log-Gabor target at the corresponding spatial location in the image. Here, we describe the psychophysical procedures used to collect the thresholds, we provide analyses of the results, and we provide some outcomes of predicting the thresholds via basic low-level features, a computational masking model, and two modern imagequality assessment algorithms.
It is widely believed that the phase spectrum of an image contributes much more to the image's visual appearance
than the magnitude spectrum. Several researchers have also shown that this phase information can
be computed indirectly from local magnitude information, a theory which is consistent with the physiological
evidence that complex cells respond to local magnitude (and are insensitive to local phase). Recent studies have
shown that tasks such as image recognition and categorization can be performed using only local magnitude
information. These findings suggest that the human visual system (HVS) uses local magnitude to infer global
phase (image-wide phase spectrum) and thereby determine the image's appearance. However, from a signal-processing
perspective, both local magnitude and local phase are related to global phase. Moreover, in terms
of image quality, distorting the local phase can result in a severely degraded image. These latter facts suggest
that the HVS uses both local magnitude and local phase to determine an image's appearance. We conducted
an experiment to quantify the contributions of local magnitude and local phase toward image appearance as a
function of spatial frequency. Hybrid images were created via a complex wavelet transform in which the the
low frequency magnitude, low frequency phase, high frequency magnitude, and high frequency phase were taken
from 2-4 different images. Subjects were then asked to rate how much each of the 2-4 images contributed to the
the appearance of the hybrid image. We found that local magnitude is indeed an important factor for image
appearance; however, local phase can play an equally important role, and in some cases, local phase can dominate
the image's appearance. We discuss the implication of these results in terms of image quality and visual coding.
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