No-reference image blur index based on singular value curve

•We found out relationship between blurred distortion and singular value curve.•We constructed a new no-reference blur index based on a singular value curve.•The solid performance of this no-reference image blur index is excellent and well-suited for real-time applications.

We describe a new no-reference blur index for still images based on a singular value curve (SVC). The algorithm is composed of two steps. First, the singular value decomposition is performed on the image to be blur-assessed. Then an image blur index is constructed from the singular value curve. Experimental results obtained on four simulated blur databases and on the Real Blur Image Database show that the proposed SVC algorithm achieves high correlation against human judgments when assessing the blur distortion of images.