Just-Noticeable Difference (JND) for Multimedia Signals

Abstract

As a result of the evolution, the human has developed unique characteristics in perception of viewing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. Just Noticeable Difference (JND) refers to the minimal amount of “X” that must be changed for the difference to be sensed by the human, where X can be any signal, derived quantity from signals such as emotion and user-experience, or even technical specifications such as resolution, asynchrony, accuracy, etc. “Perception is reality”, so JND plays an important role both explicitly and implicitly throughout our work and life, from sound to smell and from engineering to marketing (e.g., advertisement, logo management, personalization, and recommendation). The scientific measurement and formulation for JND are the prerequisite for user-centric designs and for turning human perceptual sensitivities into many system advantages. In this seminar, a holistic view will be first presented on JND research and practice, followed by an in-depth case study in visual signals. JND modeling for visual signals has attracted much research interests so far, while those for audio, haptics, olfaction, gestation and other forms of signals are expected to intensify. In essence, factors to influence JND also include utility, culture and personality, as will be highlighted.

Biography

Dr Lin Weisi is a well-recognized researcher in image processing, perception-based signal modelling and assessment, video compression, and multimedia communication systems. In the said areas, he has published 180+ international journal papers and 230+ international conference papers, 7 patents, 9 book chapters, 2 authored books and 3 edited books, as well as excellent track record in leading and delivering more than 10 major funded projects (with over S$6.5m research funding). He earned his Ph.D from King’s College, University of London. He had been the Lab Head, Visual Processing, in Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R). Currently, he is an Associate Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, where he served as the Associate Chair (Graduate Studies) in 2013-2014.

He is a Fellow of IEEE and IET, and an Honorary Fellow of Singapore Institute of Engineering Technologists. He has been elected as a Distinguished Lecturer in both IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (2016-17) and Asia-Pacific Signal and Information Processing Association (2012-13), and given keynote/invited/tutorial/panel talks to 20+ international conferences during the past 10 years. He has been an Associate Editor for IEEE Trans. on Image Processing, IEEE Trans. on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, IEEE Trans. on Multimedia, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, Quality and User Experience, and Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation. He was also the Guest Editor for 7 special issues in international journals, and chaired the IEEE MMTC QoE Interest Group (2012-2014); he has been a Technical Program Chair for IEEE Int’l Conf. Multimedia and Expo (ICME 2013), International Workshop on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX 2014), International Packet Video Workshop (PV 2015), Pacific-Rim Conf. on Multimedia (PCM 2012) and IEEE Visual Communications and Image Processing (VCIP 2017). He has been awarded Zukunftskolleg Mentorship (2014) by University of Konstanz (Germany), Distinguished Overseas Professorship (2014) by Xidian University (China), and High Impact Research (HIR) Icon (2016) by University of Malaya. He has served as a voting member of 7 IEEE Technical Committees, and on the IEEE ICME Steering Committee (2014-2015). He has been also elected to the European Network on QoE in Multimedia Systems and Services (QUALINET) from a Non-COST Country Institution, based on scientific merits. He believes that good theory is practical, and has delivered 9 major systems and modules for industrial deployment with the technology developed.