Kansei evaluation of HDR color images with different tone curves and sizes - Foundational investigation of difference between japanese and chinese

Abstract

High dynamic range (HDR) color images are evaluated for Kansei impression by two groups of observers: Japanese and Chinese. Twenty HDR images were created by converting each of five HDR images with different tone curve properties into four screen sizes. As a result, the subjective rating value for the psychophysical properties of images, such as "Light" and "Dark," increased or decreased monotonically with the average brightness L*, but not with image size. On the other hand, the rating value for some Kansei evaluations, including "Natural" and "Clear," followed the same patterns. Next, we applied factor analysis to the results, having divided the data into Japanese and Chinese. The analysis result indicated that two and three factors were extracted from the rating value evaluated by Chinese and Japanese participants, respectively. These results suggest that Japanese observers evaluated HDR images in more detail than Chinese ones did. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.