A Study of Image Quality Assessment Using the Biological Information with NIRS

Abstract

In order to provide attractive content to users, it is important to design and manage services based on users' Quality of Experience (QoE). In recent years, research in this field has been increasingly focused on the biological information approach. The aim of our study is to develop a Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS)-based QoE evaluation system. In this paper, using event-related NIRS, we examine the change in the oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) as an indicator of regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes, which directly reflect brain activity. First, we measured subjects' Oxy-Hb while they were observing videos at different qualities, then performed a subjective assessment test through questionnaires, in order to identify the preference level for each video. As a result, we found significant differences between preferences and quality variations in the right side frontal area. We also recognized that video preferences had impacted more on CBF than video quality degradation. These findings suggest the possibility of building a NIRS-based QoE assessment model which realize the application of BMI to communication control.