Quantitative Evaluation of Human Visual Perception for Multiple Screens and Multiple CODECs

Great consumer experiences are created by a convergence of sight, sound, and story. This paper is an in-depth quantitative analysis of the neurobiology and optics of sight. More specifically, we examine how principals of vision science can be used to predict the bit rates and video quality needed to make video on everything from smartphones to Ultra HDTV a success. We present the psychophysical concepts of simple acuity, hyperacuity, and Snellen acuity to examine the visibility of compression artifacts for MPEG4/H.264. We also take a look at the newest emerging International compression standard HEVC. We investigate the how the various sizes of the new coding units in HEVC would be imaged on the retina, and what that could mean in terms of the HEVC video quality and bit rates we would likely need in order to deliver entertainment quality content to smartphones, tablets, HDTV, 4K TV, and Ultra HDTV.