Binocular Just-Noticeable-Difference Model for Stereoscopic Images

Conventional 2-D Just-Noticeable-Difference (JND) models measure the perceptible distortion of visual signal based on monocular vision properties by presenting a single image for both eyes. However, they are not applicable for stereoscopic displays in which a pair of stereoscopic images is presented to a viewer's left and right eyes, respectively. Some unique binocular vision properties, e.g., binocular combination and rivalry, need to be considered in the development of a JND model for stereoscopic images. In this letter, we propose a binocular JND (BJND) model based on psychophysical experiments which are conducted to model the basic binocular vision properties in response to asymmetric noises in a pair of stereoscopic images. The first experiment exploits the joint visibility thresholds according to the luminance masking effect and the binocular combination of noises. The second experiment examines the reduction of visual sensitivity in binocular vision due to the contrast masking effect. Based on these experiments, the developed BJND model measures the perceptible distortion of binocular vision for stereoscopic images. Subjective evaluations on stereoscopic images validate of the proposed BJND model.