CONTRAST SENSITIVITY AND DISCRIMINATION OF COMPLEX SCENES

The aim of our research is to specify experimentally and further model spatial frequency response functions, which quantify human sensitivity to spatial information in real complex images. Three visual response functions are measured: the isolated Contrast Sensitivity Function (iCSF), which describes the ability of the visual system to detect any spatial signal in a given spatial frequency octave in isolation, the contextual Contrast Sensitivity Function (cCSF), which describes the ability of the visual system to detect a spatial signal in a given octave in an image and the contextual Visual Perception Function (VPF), which describes visual sensitivity to changes in suprathreshold contrast in an image. In this paper we present relevant background, along with our first attempts to derive experimentally and further model the VPF and CSFs. We examine the contrast detection and discrimination frameworks developed by Barten, which we find provide a sound starting position for our own modeling purposes. Progress is presented in the following areas: verification of the chosen model for detection and discrimination; choice of contrast metrics for defining contrast sensitivity; apparatus, laboratory set-up and imaging system characterization; stimuli acquisition and stimuli variations; spatial decomposition; methodology for subjective tests. Initial iCSFs are presented and compared with 'classical' findings that have used simple visual stimuli, as well as with more recent relevant work in the literature.