Image Quality from the Customer's Viewpoint: Tools and Techniques

Image/Print Quality is a key component in the sale of imaging products and consumables. The prevailing wisdom is that image quality is "in the eye of the beholder," and therefore inaccessible to measurement. Without a useful measurement of print/image/display/digital camera quality, and the underlying components of quality, product development and marketing decisions take too long and consume needless organizational energy. The objective of Image Quality from the Customer's Viewpoint; Tools and Techniques is to dispel the myths and, provide practical approaches and tools for measuring image quality and image quality attributes.

The course is recomended for imaging product hardware, softaware, and media development personel, market researchers, and product managers.

The goals of this two-day course are:

• To give product development personnel and market researchers a comprehensive understanding of the concepts of image/print/display quality.
• To provide practical tools for measuring image/print/display digital camera quality and its component attributes.

At the end of the course you will:

• Understand various aspects of psychometric scaling;
• Be able to conduct comprehensive scaling studies;
• Understand the basics of multidimensional scaling;
• Know how to apply the tools and techniques to scaling on the Internet.

Course Outline

Day One

• Introduction
• Context–The Image Quality Circle
  • Perceptual Attributes or "Nesses
  • Physical image paramaters
  • Technology variables
  • System models
  • Image quality models
• The "Nesses" of Imaging–Things People See
  • Vocabulary and Definitions
• Psychometric Scaling
  • Basic scaling concepts and definitions
  • Psychological dimensions
• Psychometric scale types
  • Nominal
  • Ordinal
  • Interval
  • Ratio
• Planning Your Scaling Study
  • Sample/stimuli selection
  • Sample preparation
  • Sample numbers
  • Observers-who and how many?
  • Observer intructions
  • Sample viewing
  • Pilot studies

Day Two

• Interval Scaling Methods
  • Graphical rating scale
  • Paired comparison and the Law of Comparative Judgment
  • Category scaling and the Law of Categorical Judgment
• Measuring Absolute Thresholds and Just-Noticeable-Differences
  • Psychometric function
  • Parameter estimation
  • Number of observers
• Ratio Scaling
  • Magnitude estimation
• Selecting the "Best" method
• Multidimensional Scaling (MDS)
  • Vocabulary and definitions
  • Metric, non-metric
  • Classic MDS
  • "Unfolding"
• Scaling Studies using the Internet
  • Limitations
  • Opportunities

Course Director and Instructor

Peter Engeldrum, the inventor of the Image Quality Circle (IQC), will be the course instructor. He is president of Imcotek, a technical consulting firm that assists organizations in finding solutions to imaging system and image and color problems. With over 25 years of experience in imaging and color systems, he has worked with a wide variety of imaging and display technologies. Peter has been active in the the areas of image and color quality, color scanning, color printing, photography, and color imaging over the Internet. Mr. Engeldrum was a faculty member at the Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, where he received his degrees. Peter is a member of several professional societies and is a Fellow of IS&T. He has also served on several corporate advisory boards and has several patents and patents pending in the areas of display calibration and Internet imaging.

For further information email Peter Engeldrum or call: (781)-756-0935.

Imcotek
P.O. Box 17
Winchester, MA 01890

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