Image quality assessment using the dead leaves target: experience with the latest approach and further investigations

The so-called texture loss is a critical parameter in the objective image quality assessment of todays cameras. Especially cameras build in mobile phones show significant loss of low contrast, fine details which are hard to describe using standard resolution measurement procedures. The combination of very small form factor and high pixel count leads to a high demand of noise reduction in the signal-processing pipeline of these cameras. Di↵erent work groups within ISO and IEEE are investigating methods to describe the texture loss with an objective method. The so-called dead leaves pattern has been used for quite a while in this context. Image Engineering presented a new intrinsic approach at the Electronic Imaging Conference 2014, which promises to solve the open issue of the original approach, which could be influenced by noise and artifacts. In this paper, we present our experience with the new approach for a large set of di↵erent imaging devices. We show, that some sharpening algorithm found in todays cameras can significantly influence the Spatial Frequency Response based on the Dead Leaves structure (SFR