Committee: 

Dr. AlRegib, Advisor    

Dr. McClellan, Chair

Dr. Anderson

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the role of visual system characteristics, color perception mechanisms and spatial pooling strategies in perceptual image quality assessment. More specifically, we focus on the contrast sensitivity mechanisms in the retinal ganglion cells and the suppression mechanisms in cortical neurons to partially model the visual system. Furthermore, we utilize color difference equations and color descriptors to mimic color perception. We also analyze spatial pooling strategies to investigate the significance of pooling and utilize data-driven approaches to estimate the perceived quality of images.