Image Quality Prediction Research Articles

Regional Image Quality Scoring for 2-D Echocardiography Using Deep Learning.

To develop and compare methods to automatically estimate regional ultrasound image quality for echocardiography separate from view correctness. Three methods for estimating image quality were developed: (i) classic pixel-based metric: the generalized contrast-to-noise ratio (gCNR), computed on myocardial segments (region of interest) and left ventricle lumen (background), extracted by a U-Net segmentation model; (ii) local image coherence: the average local coherence as predicted by a U-Net model that predicts image coherence from B-mode ultrasound images at the pixel level; (iii) deep convolutional network: an end-to-end deep-learning model that predicts the quality of each region in the image directly. These methods were evaluated against manual regional quality annotations provided by three experienced cardiologists. The results indicated poor performance of the gCNR metric, with Spearman correlation to annotations of ρ = 0.24. The end-to-end learning model obtained the best result, ρ = 0.69, comparable to the inter-observer correlation, ρ = 0.63. Finally, the coherence-based method, with ρ = 0.58, out-performed the classical metrics and was more generic than the end-to-end approach. The deep convolutional network provided the most accurate regional quality prediction, while the coherence-based method offered a more generalizable solution. gCNR showed limited effectiveness in this study. The image quality prediction tool is available as an open-source Python library at https://github.com/GillesVanDeVyver/arqee.

Predicting image quality degradation as a result of two-phase sample transport in LA-ICP-TOFMS mapping of carbon-based materials

A model was developed to simulate LA-ICP-TOFMS mapping of elements in soft biological tissues, focusing on how one- and two-phase experimental element-specific SPR profiles affect image quality under different virtual mapping conditions.

Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluation of the Image Quality of MDCT Multiphasic Liver Scans in HCC Patients.

Background: The quality of CT images obtained from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients is complex, affecting diagnostic accuracy, precision, and radiation dose assessment due to increased exposure risks. Objectives: The study evaluated image quality qualitatively and quantitatively by comparing quality levels with an effective radiation dose to ensure acceptable quality accuracy. Materials and Methods: This study retrospectively reviewed 100 known HCC patients (Li-RADS-5) who underwent multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) multiphasic scans for follow-up of their health condition between January and October 2023. The evaluation involved quantitative and qualitative analyses of parameters such as SD, SNR, and CNR, as well as a qualitative assessment by two radiology consultants. The outcomes were compared, and the effective dose was calculated and compared with both quantitative and qualitative assessments of image quality. Results: ROC curve analysis revealed significant differences in CT image quality, with high to moderate specificity and sensitivity across all the quantitative parameters. However, multivariate examination revealed decreasing importance levels, except for CNR (B, 0.203; p = 0.001) and SD BG (B, 0.330; p = 0.002), which increased in B. The CNR and SD BG remained independent variables for CT image quality prediction, but no statistically significant relationship was found between the effective dose and image quality, either quantitatively or qualitatively. Conclusion: This study underscores the vital role of both quantitative and qualitative assessments of CT images in evaluating their quality for patients with HCC and highlights the predictive importance of CNR, SNR, and SD. These findings emphasize the value of these devices in assessing and predicting outcomes to minimize the effective dose.

A new method for judging thermal image quality with applications

Infrared thermal imaging, a non-destructive testing technology, measures the surface temperature of objects. Assessing thermal image quality is crucial for image monitoring, system design, algorithm optimization, and benchmarking. However, developing objective metrics that align with human perception is challenging due to the distinct structure of thermal images, which often feature high background temperatures and minimal variance between objects and the background. Existing methods typically target specific local features or overall image contrast, but new measures are needed to bridge the gap between objective performance and the unique characteristics of thermal images.We propose a novel image quality assessment (IQA) method inspired by the human vision system, specifically designed for thermal images, harmonizing local and global data. The primary contributions include (1) innovative local, global, and hybrid thermal quality assessment methods that deliver precise image quality predictions without needing reference images, (2) an experimental analysis evaluating the developed blind thermal IQA measure’s applicability to various thermal images, and (3) a comprehensive analysis of traditional IQA measure-based methods applied to publicly accessible thermal databases. Extensive simulations demonstrate our method’s competitive performance and strong alignment with human perception of image quality.

Image Quality Difference Perception Ability: A BIQA model effectiveness metric based on model falsification method

Blind Image Quality Assessment (BIQA) methods refer to algorithms that predict image quality scores without reference images. This challenging area is crucial for preprocessing and optimizing visual tasks. Since BIQA is a small-sample task, it has become a common practice to apply transfer learning by using models pre-trained on other visual tasks, such as semantic recognition, to BIQA. This paper is interested in whether a backbone that performs better in semantic recognition also improves predictive accuracy in BIQA tasks. Comparative experiments showed that different semantic backbones with varying precision exhibit minimal differences in PLCC (Pearson Linear Correlation Coefficient) and SRCC (Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient). However, further comparison shows that the semantic backbone does enhance the model’s IQA abilities, which traditional metrics fail to capture due to their oversight of quality differences between images. We term this ability as Image Quality Difference Perception Ability (IQDP Ability). Based on this, we propose an IQDP comparison method and a new metric, which can effectively compare and measure a model’s IQDP Ability, supplementing traditional metrics and providing an effective means of identifying superior models.

Predicting image quality of forensic footwear impressions

The ability of a footwear examiner to confidently discern features of importance in a forensic examination is directly related to impression quality. As a result, quality directly impacts the strength an examiner can ascribe to any opinion of source attribution. Despite the importance of image quality during both the analysis and comparison phases of an examination, there is limited research on the estimation, variation, and prediction of footwear impression quality. In response, this study aims to develop a methodology for evaluating footwear impression quality by regressing image features against subjective judgments of quality. Using a dataset of more than 450 impressions evaluated by more than 40 participants, estimates of intra- and inter-rater consistency were computed. After identifying reliable raters, matrix completion was performed, thereby permitting data imputation. This was based on an approximate 90:10 split between training and testing data, ultimately resulting in 6,000 quality predictions, which exhibited a mean agreement with ground truth > 95%. Each image in the dataset was then reduced to a 10-dimensional feature vector describing image attributes such as complexity, contrast, sharpness, and noise. These features were used to train multiple ordinal and multinomial regression models aimed at predicting image quality. Model comparison resulted in an overall optimal accuracy of approximately 75% when comparing predicted/modeled quality against the ground truth of subjective rater opinions. The resulting semi-automated, reference-free and numerical prediction tool exhibits reasonable success for impression quality prediction when presented with the types of challenging and domain-specific images often encountered in forensic footwear comparisons. The outcomes and challenges associated with this investigation provide a foundation upon which future studies of quality can be modified and built, with the downstream goal of an increased understanding of how quality impacts weight of evidence.

Optimasi Convolutional Neural Networks untuk Deteksi Kanker Payudara menggunakan Arsitektur DenseNet

Breast cancer is a disease commonly suffered by women worldwide, ranking as the second-largest disease burden. In response to the urgent need for improved detection accuracy, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) promise significant advancements. The objective of this research is to optimize the use of CNNs with the DenseNet architecture for breast cancer detection. The study employs quantitative methods, leveraging Deep Learning through CNNs. Mammography data is sourced from Kaggle, specifically the “Breast Histopathology Images” dataset. This dataset comprises 90,000 digital mammography images, which are preprocessed and divided proportionally for training, validation, and model testing. Research variables encompass CNN model parameters, training techniques, and the integration of imaging modalities to enhance breast cancer detection performance. The research focuses on processed mammography data, with accuracy and image quality as key evaluation metrics for breast cancer sample identification. Our findings demonstrate that the DenseNet architecture within CNNs achieves an impressive 92% accuracy in breast cancer detection. This remarkable performance signifies success in enhancing image quality and class prediction, aligning with the DenseNet architecture’s flow diagram. Ultimately, these results contribute significantly to effective breast cancer diagnosis by optimizing CNNs with the DenseNet architecture to improve image quality during breast cancer sampling.

Prediction of prognosis in glioblastoma with radiomics features extracted by synthetic MRI images using cycle-consistent GAN

To propose a style transfer model for multi-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images with a cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN) and evaluate the image quality and prognosis prediction performance for glioblastoma (GBM) patients from the extracted radiomics features. Style transfer models of T1 weighted MRI image (T1w) to T2 weighted MRI image (T2w) and T2w to T1w with CycleGAN were constructed using the BraTS dataset. The style transfer model was validated with the Cancer Genome Atlas Glioblastoma Multiforme (TCGA-GBM) dataset. Moreover, imaging features were extracted from real and synthesized images. These features were transformed to rad-scores by the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-Cox regression. The prognosis performance was estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method. For the accuracy of the image quality of the real and synthesized MRI images, the MI, RMSE, PSNR, and SSIM were 0.991 ± 2.10 ×10-4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ imes {10}^{-4}$$\\end{document}, 2.79 ± 0.16, 40.16 ± 0.38, and 0.995 ± 2.11 ×10-4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ imes {10}^{-4}$$\\end{document}, for T2w, and .992 ± 2.63 ×10-4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ imes {10}^{-4}$$\\end{document}, 2.49 ± 6.89 ×10-2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ imes {10}^{-2}$$\\end{document}, 40.51 ± 0.22, and 0.993 ± 3.40 ×10-4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ imes {10}^{-4}$$\\end{document} for T1w, respectively. The survival time had a significant difference between good and poor prognosis groups for both real and synthesized T2w (p < 0.05). However, the survival time had no significant difference between good and poor prognosis groups for both real and synthesized T1w. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the real and synthesized T2w in both good and poor prognoses. The results of T1w were similar in the point that there was no significant difference between the real and synthesized T1w. It was found that the synthesized image could be used for prognosis prediction. The proposed prognostic model using CycleGAN could reduce the cost and time of image scanning, leading to a promotion to build the patient’s outcome prediction with multi-contrast images.

Key-Point-Descriptor-Based Image Quality Evaluation in Photogrammetry Workflows

Photogrammetry depends critically on the quality of the images used to reconstruct accurate and detailed 3D models. Selection of high-quality images not only improves the accuracy and resolution of the resulting 3D models, but also contributes to the efficiency of the photogrammetric process by reducing data redundancy and computational demands. This study presents a novel approach to image quality evaluation tailored for photogrammetric applications that uses the key point descriptors typically encountered in image matching. Using a LightGBM ranker model, this research evaluates the effectiveness of key point descriptors such as SIFT, SURF, BRISK, ORB, KAZE, FREAK, and SuperPoint in predicting image quality. These descriptors are evaluated for their ability to indicate image quality based on the image patterns they capture. Experiments conducted on various publicly available image datasets show that descriptor-based methods outperform traditional no-reference image quality metrics such as BRISQUE, NIQE, PIQE, and BIQAA and a simple sharpness-based image quality evaluation method. The experimental results highlight the potential of using key-point-descriptor-based image quality evaluation methods to improve the photogrammetric workflow by selecting high-quality images for 3D modeling.

Enhancing image quality prediction with self‐supervised visual masking

AbstractFull‐reference image quality metrics (FR‐IQMs) aim to measure the visual differences between a pair of reference and distorted images, with the goal of accurately predicting human judgments. However, existing FR‐IQMs, including traditional ones like PSNR and SSIM and even perceptual ones such as HDR‐VDP, LPIPS, and DISTS, still fall short in capturing the complexities and nuances of human perception. In this work, rather than devising a novel IQM model, we seek to improve upon the perceptual quality of existing FR‐IQM methods. We achieve this by considering visual masking, an important characteristic of the human visual system that changes its sensitivity to distortions as a function of local image content. Specifically, for a given FR‐IQM metric, we propose to predict a visual masking model that modulates reference and distorted images in a way that penalizes the visual errors based on their visibility. Since the ground truth visual masks are difficult to obtain, we demonstrate how they can be derived in a self‐supervised manner solely based on mean opinion scores (MOS) collected from an FR‐IQM dataset. Our approach results in enhanced FR‐IQM metrics that are more in line with human prediction both visually and quantitatively.

McmIQA: Multi-Module Collaborative Model for No-Reference Image Quality Assessment

No reference image quality assessment is a technique that uses computers to simulate the human visual system and automatically evaluate the perceived quality of images. In recent years, with the widespread success of deep learning in the field of computer vision, many end-to-end image quality assessment algorithms based on deep learning have emerged. However, unlike other computer vision tasks that focus on image content, an excellent image quality assessment model should simultaneously consider distortions in the image and comprehensively evaluate their relationships. Motivated by this, we propose a Multi-module Collaborative Model for Image Quality Assessment (McmIQA). The image quality assessment is divided into three subtasks: distortion perception, content recognition, and correlation mapping. And specific modules are constructed for each subtask: the distortion perception module, the content recognition module, and the correlation mapping module. Specifically, we apply two contrastive learning frameworks on two constructed datasets to train the distortion perception module and the content recognition module to extract two types of features from the image. Subsequently, using these extracted features as input, we employ a ranking loss to train the correlation mapping module to predict image quality on image quality assessment datasets. Extensive experiments conducted on seven relevant datasets demonstrated that the proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance in both synthetic distortion and natural distortion image quality assessment tasks.

AI Applications to Breast MRI: Today and Tomorrow.

In breast imaging, there is an unrelenting increase in the demand for breast imaging services, partly explained by continuous expanding imaging indications in breast diagnosis and treatment. As the human workforce providing these services is not growing at the same rate, the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) in breast imaging has gained significant momentum to maximize workflow efficiency and increase productivity while concurrently improving diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes. Thus far, the implementation of AI in breast imaging is at the most advanced stage with mammography and digital breast tomosynthesis techniques, followed by ultrasound, whereas the implementation of AI in breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is not moving along as rapidly due to the complexity of MRI examinations and fewer available dataset. Nevertheless, there is persisting interest in AI-enhanced breast MRI applications, even as the use of and indications of breast MRI continue to expand. This review presents an overview of the basic concepts of AI imaging analysis and subsequently reviews the use cases for AI-enhanced MRI interpretation, that is, breast MRI triaging and lesion detection, lesion classification, prediction of treatment response, risk assessment, and image quality. Finally, it provides an outlook on the barriers and facilitators for the adoption of AI in breast MRI. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 5 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 6.

Impact of lens autofluorescence and opacification on retinal imaging

BackgroundRetinal imaging, including fundus autofluorescence (FAF), strongly depends on the clearness of the optical media. Lens status is crucial since the ageing lens has both light-blocking and autofluorescence (AF) properties...

Joint Distortion Restoration and Quality Feature Learning for No-reference Image Quality Assessment

No-reference image quality assessment (NR-IQA) methods, inspired by the free energy principle, improve the accuracy of image quality prediction by simulating the human brain’s repair process for distorted images. However, existing methods use separate optimization schemes for distortion restoration and quality prediction, which undermines the accurate mapping of feature representations to quality scores. To address this issue, we propose a joint restoration and quality feature learning NR-IQA (RQFL-IQA) method to jointly tackle distortion image restoration and quality prediction within a unified framework. To accurately establish the quality reconstruction relationship between distorted and restored images, a hybrid loss function based on pixel-wise and structure-wise representations is used to improve the restoration capability of the image restoration network. The proposed RQFL-IQA exploits rich labels, including restored images and quality scores, to enable the model to learn more discriminative features and establish a more accurate mapping from feature representation to quality scores. In addition, to avoid the impact of poor restoration on quality prediction, we propose a module with a cleaning function to reweight the fusion of restored and primitive features to achieve more perceptual consistency in feature fusion. Experimental results on public IQA datasets show that the proposed RQFL-IQA is superior over existing methods.

Machine learning based prediction of image quality in prostate MRI using rapid localizer images.

Diagnostic performance of prostate MRI depends on high-quality imaging. Prostate MRI quality is inversely proportional to the amount of rectal gas and distention. Early detection of poor-quality MRI may enable intervention to remove gas or exam rescheduling, saving time. We developed a machine learning based quality prediction of yet-to-be acquired MRI images solely based on MRI rapid localizer sequence, which can be acquired in a few seconds. The dataset consists of 213 (147 for training and 64 for testing) prostate sagittal T2-weighted (T2W) MRI localizer images and rectal content, manually labeled by an expert radiologist. Each MRI localizer contains seven two-dimensional (2D) slices of the patient, accompanied by manual segmentations of rectum for each slice. Cascaded and end-to-end deep learning models were used to predict the quality of yet-to-be T2W, DWI, and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) MRI images. Predictions were compared to quality scores determined by the experts using area under the receiver operator characteristic curve and intra-class correlation coefficient. In the test set of 64 patients, optimal versus suboptimal exams occurred in 95.3% (61/64) versus 4.7% (3/64) for T2W, 90.6% (58/64) versus 9.4% (6/64) for DWI, and 89.1% (57/64) versus 10.9% (7/64) for ADC. The best performing segmentation model was 2D U-Net with ResNet-34 encoder and ImageNet weights. The best performing classifier was the radiomics based classifier. A radiomics based classifier applied to localizer images achieves accurate diagnosis of subsequent image quality for T2W, DWI, and ADC prostate MRI sequences.

No‐reference image quality assessment via a dual‐branch residual network

AbstractThe No‐Reference Image Quality Assessment (NR‐IQA) method can predict quality scores of distorted images without the reference image. However, due to the variability in both color and structure of images, existing NR‐IQA methods struggle to accurately predict quality scores of distorted images. Therefore, an NR‐IQA method based on a Dual‐Branch Residual Network (DBRIQA) for evaluating the quality scores of color‐distorted images is proposed. First, guided filtering is applied to the hue images in the HSV space to extract distortion information from the image's color. Then, due to significant differences in distorted images, enhancements are made to the traditional residual blocks, forming a feature extraction module that captures multi‐scale features from the image. In order to capture the global relationships in the distorted image, a Global‐Level Attention Block (GLAB) is introduced, facilitating the interaction of information among the extracted features. Experiments were conducted across four publicly available IQA datasets, including LIVE, CSIQ, TID2008, and TID2013. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method exhibits strong performance and generalization capabilities in predicting image quality compared to peer methods.

Perceptual Image Quality Prediction: Are Contrastive Language–Image Pretraining (CLIP) Visual Features Effective?

In recent studies, the Contrastive Language–Image Pretraining (CLIP) model has showcased remarkable versatility in downstream tasks, ranging from image captioning and question-answering reasoning to image–text similarity rating, etc. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of CLIP visual features in predicting perceptual image quality. CLIP is also compared with competitive large multimodal models (LMMs) for this task. In contrast to previous studies, the results show that CLIP and other LMMs do not always provide the best performance. Interestingly, our evaluation experiment reveals that combining visual features from CLIP or other LMMs with some simple distortion features can significantly enhance their performance. In some cases, the improvements are even more than 10%, while the prediction accuracy surpasses 90%.

Auxiliary Information Guided Self-attention for Image Quality Assessment

Image quality assessment (IQA) is an important problem in computer vision with many applications. We propose a transformer-based multi-task learning framework for the IQA task. Two subtasks: constructing an auxiliary information error map and completing image quality prediction, are jointly optimized using a shared feature extractor. We use visual transformers (ViT) as a feature extractor for feature extraction and guide ViT to focus on image quality-related features by building auxiliary information error map subtask. In particular, we propose a fusion network that includes a channel focus module. Unlike the fusion methods commonly used in previous IQA methods, we use the fusion network, including the channel attention module, to fuse the auxiliary information error map features with the image features, which facilitates the model to mine the image quality features for more accurate image quality assessment. And by jointly optimizing the two subtasks, ViT focuses more on extracting image quality features and building a more precise mapping from feature representation to quality score. With slight adjustments to the model, our approach can be used in both no-reference (NR) and full-reference (FR) IQA environments. We evaluate the proposed method in multiple IQA databases, showing better performance than state-of-the-art FR and NR IQA methods.

Graph-Represented Distribution Similarity Index for Full-Reference Image Quality Assessment.

In this paper, we propose a graph-represented image distribution similarity (GRIDS) index for full-reference (FR) image quality assessment (IQA), which can measure the perceptual distance between distorted and reference images by assessing the disparities between their distribution patterns under a graph-based representation. First, we transform the input image into a graph-based representation, which is proven to be a versatile and effective choice for capturing visual perception features. This is achieved through the automatic generation of a vision graph from the given image content, leading to holistic perceptual associations for irregular image regions. Second, to reflect the perceived image distribution, we decompose the undirected graph into cliques and then calculate the product of the potential functions for the cliques to obtain the joint probability distribution of the undirected graph. Finally, we compare the distances between the graph feature distributions of the distorted and reference images at different stages; thus, we combine the distortion distribution measurements derived from different graph model depths to determine the perceived quality of the distorted images. The empirical results obtained from an extensive array of experiments underscore the competitive nature of our proposed method, which achieves performance on par with that of the state-of-the-art methods, demonstrating its exceptional predictive accuracy and ability to maintain consistent and monotonic behaviour in image quality prediction tasks. The source code is publicly available at the following website https://github.com/Land5cape/GRIDS.

Radiomics based automated quality assessment for T2W prostate MR images

PurposeThe guidelines for prostate cancer recommend the use of MRI in the prostate cancer pathway. Due to the variability in prostate MR image quality, the reliability of this technique in the detection of prostate cancer is highly variable in clinical practice. This leads to the need for an objective and automated assessment of image quality to ensure an adequate acquisition and hereby to improve the reliability of MRI. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of Blind/referenceless image spatial quality evaluator (Brisque) and radiomics in automated image quality assessment of T2-weighted (T2W) images. MethodAnonymized axial T2W images from 140 patients were scored for quality using a five-point Likert scale (low, suboptimal, acceptable, good, very good quality) in consensus by two readers. Images were dichotomized into clinically acceptable (very good, good and acceptable quality images) and clinically unacceptable (low and suboptimal quality images) in order to train and verify the model. Radiomics and Brisque features were extracted from a central cuboid volume including the prostate. A reduced feature set was used to fit a Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) model to predict image quality. Two hundred times repeated 5-fold cross-validation was used to train the model and test performance by assessing the classification accuracy, the discrimination accuracy as receiver operating curve - area under curve (ROC-AUC), and by generating confusion matrices. ResultsThirty-four images were classified as clinically unacceptable and 106 were classified as clinically acceptable. The accuracy of the independent test set (mean ± standard deviation) was 85.4 ± 5.5%. The ROC-AUC was 0.856 (0.851 – 0.861) (mean; 95% confidence interval). ConclusionsRadiomics AI can automatically detect a significant portion of T2W images of suboptimal image quality. This can help improve image quality at the time of acquisition, thus reducing repeat scans and improving diagnostic accuracy.