Robust defocus blur identification in the context of blind image quality assessment

A defocus blur metric for use in blind image quality assessment is proposed. Blind image deconvolution methods are used to determine the metric. Existing direct deconvolution methods based on the cepstrum, bicepstrum and on a spectral subtraction technique are compared across 210 images. A variation of the spectral subtraction method, based on a power spectrum surface of revolution, is proposed and is found to compare favourably with existing direct deconvolution methods for defocus blur identification. The method is found to be especially useful when distinguishing between in-focus and out-of-focus images. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.