On the performance of objective metrics for omnidirectional visual content

Abstract

Omnidirectional image and video have gained popularity thanks to availability of capture and display devices for this type of content. Recent studies have assessed performance of objective metrics in predicting visual quality of omnidirectional content. These metrics, however, have not been rigorously validated by comparing their prediction results with ground-truth subjective scores. In this paper, we present a set of 360-degree images along with their subjective quality ratings. The set is composed of four contents represented in two geometric projections and compressed with three different codecs at four different bitrates. A range of objective quality metrics for each stimulus is then computed and compared to subjective scores. Statistical analysis is performed in order to assess performance of each objective quality metric in predicting subjective visual quality as perceived by human observers. Results show the estimated performance of the state-of-the-art objective metrics for omnidirectional visual content. Objective metrics specifically designed for 360-degree content do not outperform conventional methods designed for 2D images.