Exploratory Study on User's Dynamic Visual Acuity and Quality Perception of Impaired Images

TL;DR

This study investigates how head movement affects users' visual acuity and perceived quality of impaired images, providing insights for optimizing multimedia communication in dynamic viewing conditions such as virtual reality.

Contribution

It introduces an experimental framework to evaluate visual acuity and quality perception during head movements, highlighting the impact of motion on image quality assessment.

Findings

Head movement significantly reduces visual acuity and perceived image quality.

Users can tolerate certain quality reductions without noticing impairments.

Results inform the design of multimedia systems for dynamic viewing environments.

Abstract

In this paper we assess the impact of head movement on user's visual acuity and their quality perception of impaired images. There are physical limitations on the amount of visual information a person can perceive and physical limitations regarding the speed at which our body, and as a consequence our head, can explore a scene. In these limitations lie fundamental solutions for the communication of multimedia systems. As such, subjects were asked to evaluate the perceptual quality of static images presented on a TV screen while their head was in a dynamic (moving) state. The idea is potentially applicable to virtual reality applications and therefore, we also measured the image quality perception of each subject on a head mounted display. Experiments show the significant decrease in visual acuity and quality perception when the user's head is not static, and give an indication on how much the quality can be reduced without the user noticing any impairments.