Defining a target distinctness measure through a single-channel computational model of vision

The main goal of this paper is to define a computational measure for quantifying the visual distinctness of targets in complex natural scenes, using a single-channel vision model. The basic features incorporated in the defined target distinctness measure are: (i) an adaptive contrast sensitivity function; (ii) an estimation of image contrast masking and (iii) an estimation of a set of interest points in the image. Several experiments are performed to determine the relative contribution of each of these factors to the measure, using the correlation with human performance data as the evaluation function. 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.