Abstract
This paper introduces a new psychophysical experiment developed to enable observers to judge the quality of computer graphics imagery with respect to the real scene it depicts. This new framework facilitates perceptual judgment of images against a real scene. Unlike previous work, which examined primitive objects under basic illumination, this experiment examines complex geometry illuminated using a calibrated light source. To ensure valid results, a commercial lighting booth containing rapid prototyped three-dimensional (3D) objects serves as the real scene. For comparison, a series of representative images, of varying quality, were rendered using the physically based Radiance lighting simulation software. Results from these experiments show that higher parameter settings, which lead to longer processing times, do not necessarily lead to higher quality images. To demonstrate that there is only modest benefit to setting parameters higher, images are subjected to further testing using two different visual quality discrimination operators; the Visual Differences Predictor (VDP) and the Structural SIMilarity (SSIM) for image-quality assessment. The results from the automatic operators correspond well with each other, in addition to yielding comparable outcomes as the psychophysical experiment. Although, a single scene was considered in the experiment, several scenes are tested using the image-quality metrics to lend further reliability to the assertion that higher parameter settings, which lead to extended processing times, do not necessarily lead to superior quality results.
- Ahumada, A. and Beard, B. 1998. A simple vision model for inhomogeneous image quality assessment. International Symposium Digest of Technical Papers 6, 1, 40--41.Google Scholar
- CIE. 1924. CIE Proceedings. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
- CMB. 2005. The gti colormatcher series. http://www.gtilite.com/colormatcher-series.htm.Google Scholar
- Coolican, H. 1999. Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. Hodder and Stoughton, Oxford.Google Scholar
- Daly, S. 1993. The visible differences predictor: An algorithm for the assessment of image fidelity. In Digital Images and Human Vision. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, USA, 179--206. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Devlin, K., Chalmers, A., Wilkie, A., and Purgathofer, W. 2002. Star: Tone reproduction and physically based spectral rendering. In State of the Art Reports, Eurographics 2002, D. Fellner and R. Scopignio, Eds. The Eurographics Association, Vienna, 101--123.Google Scholar
- FDM. 2005. Slu product realization lab. http://parks.slu.edu.Google Scholar
- Ferwerda, J., Pattanaik, S., Shirley, P., and Greenberg, D. 1997. A model of visual masking for computer graphics. ACM SIGGRAPH '97 Conference Proceedings 31, Annual Conference Series. 143--152. Google Scholar
- Gilchrist, A. 1996. Lightness, Brightness and Transparency. Lawerence Erlbaum Assoc., Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
- Gilchrist, A. and Jacobsen, A. 1984. Perception of lightness and illumination in a world of one reflectance. Perception 13, 5--19.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gilchrist, A. L. 1979. The perception of surface blacks and whites. Scientific American 240, 3 (Mar.), 88--97.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Goral, C. M., Torrance, K. K., Greenberg, D. P., and Battaile, B. 1984. Modelling the interaction of light between diffuse surfaces. Proceedings ACM Siggraph 18, 3 (July), 213--222. Google Scholar
- Larson, G. W., Rushmeier, H., and Piatko, C. 1997. A Visibility matching tone reproduction operator for high dynamic range scenes. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 3, 4 (Oct.), 291--306. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Maamari, F. and Fontoynont, M. 2003. Analytical tests for investigating the accuracy of lighting programs. Lighting Research and Technology 35, 225--242.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Mania, A. 2001. Fidelity metrics for virtual environment simulations based on human judgements of spatial memory awareness states.Google Scholar
- McNamara, A. 2000a. Evaluating image quality metrics vs. human evaluation. ACM SIGGRAPH 2000 Sketches Program.Google Scholar
- McNamara, A. 2000b. Image quality metrics. In SIGGRAPH 2000 Image Quality Metrics Course Notes. ACM SIGGRAPH, New York, NY.Google Scholar
- McNamara, A., Chalmers, A., Trocianko, T., and Gilchrist, I. 2000. Comparing real & synthetic scenes using human judgements of lightness. In Proceedings of the 11th Eurographics Rendering Workshop, B. Peroche and H. E. Rushmeier, Eds. Springer-Verlag, Brno, Czech Republic, 207--218. Google Scholar
- Meyer, G. W., Rushmeier, H. E., Cohen, M. F., Greenberg, D. P., and Torrance, K. E. 1986. An Experimental Evaluation of Computer Graphics Imagery. ACM Transactions on Graphics 5, 1 (Jan.), 30--50. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Morvan, Y. and McNamara, A. 2003. Assessing the visual perception impact of indirect lighting. In Proceedings of the 2005 Eurographics Ireland Workshop. Eurographics Ireland, Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, 87--103.Google Scholar
- Rademacher, P., Lengyel, J., Cutrell, E., and Whitted, T. 2001. Measuring the perception of visual realism in images. In Proceedings of the 12th Eurographics Workshop on Rendering Techniques. Springer-Verlag, London, UK, 235--248. Google Scholar
- RADIANCE. 2005. Radiance lighting simulation. http://radsite.lbl.gov.Google Scholar
- Reinhard, E., Stark, M., Shirley, P., and Ferwerda, J. 2002. Photographic tone reproduction for digital images. In SIGGRAPH '02: Proceedings of the 29th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques. ACM Press, New York, NY, USA, 267--276. Google Scholar
- Reinhard, E., Ward, G., Pattanaik, S., and Debevec, P. 2005. High Dynamic Range Imaging: Acquisition, Display and Image-Based Lighting. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, USA. Google Scholar
- Stanford. 2005. The stanford bunny. http://graphics.stanford.edu/data/3Dscanrep.Google Scholar
- Szirmay-Kalos, L., Kovacs, L., and Abbas, A. M. 2001. Testing monte-carlo global illumination methods with analytically computable scenes. Ninth International Conference in Central Europe on Computer Graphics, Visualization and Interactive Digital Media (WSCG 2001) 1, 419--430.Google Scholar
- Travis, D. 1991. Effective Color Displays. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
- Ulbricht, C., Wilkie, A., and Purgathofer, W. 2005. Verification of physically based rendering algorithms. In STAR Proceedings of Eurographics 2005, Y. Chrysanthou and M. Magnor, Eds. Eurographics Association, Geneva, Switzerland, 95--112. Eurographics 05 STAR.Google Scholar
- Usoh, M., Arthur, K., Whitton, M. C., Bastos, R., Steed, A., Slater, M., and Frederick P. Brooks, J. 1999. Walking, walking-in-place, flying, in virtual environments. In SIGGRAPH '99: Proceedings of the 26th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques. ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York, NY, USA, 359--364. Google Scholar
- Wang, Z., Bovik, A., Sheikh, H., and E. Simoncelli. 2004. Image quality assessment: from error visibility to structural similarity. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing 13, 600--612. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Watson, A. B. 2000. Visual detection of spatial contrast patterns: Evaluation of five simple models. Optics Express 6(1), 12--33.Google ScholarCross Ref
Index Terms
- Exploring visual and automatic measures of perceptual fidelity in real and simulated imagery
Recommendations
Exploring perceptual equivalence between real and simulated imagery
APGV '05: Proceedings of the 2nd symposium on Applied perception in graphics and visualizationWe conducted a new psychophysical experiment which judges the quality of computer graphics imagery with respect to the real scene it depicts. The experimental framework facilitates perceptual judgment of images against a real scene. Unlike previous work,...
Screen-space perceptual rendering of human skin
We propose a novel skin shader which translates the simulation of subsurface scattering from texture space to a screen-space diffusion approximation. It naturally scales well while maintaining a perceptually plausible result. This technique allows us to ...
On seeing and rendering colour gradients
APGV '07: Proceedings of the 4th symposium on Applied perception in graphics and visualizationTen years ago Greenberg and colleagues presented their framework for realistic image synthesis [Greenberg et al. 1997], aiming "to develop physically based lighting models and perceptually based rendering procedures for computer graphics that will ...
Comments