Impacts of appearance parameters on perceived image quality for mobile-phone displays

In order to investigate the perceived image quality (IQ) influenced by different image appearance parameters, a psychophysical experiment was carried out on two mobile-phone displays of different technologies, the in-plane switching (IPS) and the active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED). The test images were generated within a wide range of variations by applying various manipulation methods, involving changes in several kinds of image appearance parameters, i.e. lightness, chroma, hue, and spatial frequency. The perceived attributes of naturalness, colourfulness, brightness, contrast, sharpness, clearness, preference, and overall IQ were visually assessed via categorical judgement method for several application types of test images. The impacts of the manipulation methods on individual attributes have been deeply discussed based on the interrelationships of these attributes, which reveal that the significant parameters towards better overall IQ for mobile-phone displays include high lightness, suitable chroma and lightness frequency distribution, and impartial hue, accordingly better image quality will be accomplished after all these parameters have been optimised at the same time. The achievements of this study would provide constructive instructions on achieving excellent display effects for researchers and manufactories of mobile-phone displays.