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Insights from visual neuroscience inspired tools that minimize visual distortion from compression.
An example of JPEG masking that shows the contrast masking effect in action. Bovik applied insights from visual psychology and neuroscience to design tools that allow broadcasters and streaming video sites to compress and distribute video so its distortion is minimized. In the above image, the distortion is the same everywhere, but is less visible in busy regions (in the grass and flowers or the girl's hair) and more visible in smooth regions (on the girl's face). This does not occur because the grass hides the distortion, but instead, is a by-product of a visual process that renders the distortion invisible or nearly so. SSIM is designed to predict these 'content-dependent' effects.
Credit: The University of Texas at Austin
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