Perceptual color difference assessment using histogram distance on hue histogram descriptor

In this paper, we propose a new color difference assessment scheme, with emphasis on hue attribute. The proposed measure is a full-reference difference predictor, which extracts hue histogram descriptors from a pair of color images to be compared and quantifies their difference. In order to achieve good correlation with subjective judgement, we exploit a preprocessor approximating the contrast sensitivity function of visual system, followed by a histogram distance function for circular data which corresponds to the way humans perceive difference. Performance of the proposed scheme is validated on benchmark datasets exhibiting perceptual degradation caused by gamut mapping. Experimental results indicate the effectiveness of the proposed metric against chromatic distortions, making it useful as an optimization module for color gamut mapping applications.