FFTMI: Features Fusion for Natural Tone-Mapped Images Quality Evaluation

Abstract

Tone-mapping is a crucial step in the task towards displaying high dynamic range (HDR) images on standard displays. Given the number of possible ways to tone-map such images, development of an objective quality criterion, enabling selection of the most suitable tone-mapping operator (TMO) and setting its parameters in order to maximize the quality of the reproduction, is of high interest. In this paper, a new objective metric for natural tone-mapped images is proposed. It is based on a fusion of several perceptually relevant features that have been carefully selected using an appropriate feature selection procedure. The outcome of the selection also provides a valuable insight into the importance of particular perceptual aspects when judging the quality of tone-mapped HDR content. The performance of the resulting combination of features is thoroughly evaluated with respect to three publicly available databases and compared to several relevant state-of-the-art criteria. The proposed approach is shown to significantly outperform the tested metrics and can, therefore, be considered a competitive alternative for tone-mapped images evaluation.