Proceedings Article | 14 February 2008
KEYWORDS: Image segmentation, Image processing algorithms and systems, Visualization, Algorithm development, Lamps, Databases, Electronic imaging, Photometry, Light sources and illumination, Gaussian filters
This paper presents the results of two psychophysical experiments designed to investigate the effects of size,
location, blur, and contrast on the perceived visual interest of objects within images. In the first experiment,
digital composting was used to create images containing objects (humans, animals, and non-living objects)
which varied in controlled increments of size, location, blur, and contrast. Ratings of perceived interest were
then measured for each object. We found that: (1) As object size increases, perceived interest increases but
exhibits diminished gains for larger sizes; (2) As an object moves from the center of the image toward the
image's edge, perceived interest decreases nearly linearly with distance; (3) Blurring imposes a substantial initial
decrease in perceived interest, but this drop is relatively lessened for highly blurred objects; (4) As an object's
RMS contrast is increased, perceived interest increases nearly linearly. Furthermore, these trends were quite
similar for all three categories (human, animal, non-living object). To determine whether these data can predict
the perceived interest of objects in real, non-composited images, a second experiment was performed in which
subjects rated the visual interest of each of 562 objects in 150 images. Based on these results, an algorithm is
presented which, given a segmented image, attempts to generate an object-level interest map.
