No reference video quality estimation based on human visual system for 2.5/36 devices

2.5/3G devices should achieve satisfactory QoS, overcoming mobile standards drawbacks. In-service/blind quality monitoring is essential in order to improve perceptual quality according to Human Visual System. Several techniques have been proposed for image/video quality assessment. A novel no-reference quality index which uses an effective HVS model is proposed. Luminance masking, Contrast Sensitivity Function and temporal masking are taken into account with fast in-service algorithms. The proposed index is able to assess blockiness distortion with a fast image-domain measure. Compression/post-processing blurring effects are measured with a standard approach. Moving artifacts distortion is evaluated taking into account standard deviation with respect to a natural image statistical model. Several distortion effects, in wireless noisy channels with low video-streaming/playback bit rates (e.g. edge busyness and image persistence) are evaluated. A multi-level pooling algorithm (block, temporal-window, frame, and sequence levels) is used. Validation tests have been developed in order to assess index performance and computational complexity. The final measure provides human-like threshold-effect and high correlation with subjective data. Low complexity algorithms can be derived for real-time, HVS-based, QoS management for low-power consumer devices. Different distortion effects (e.g. ringing and jerkiness) can be easily included.