H.264 coding artifacts and their relation to perceived annoyance

In this study we investigate coding artifacts in H.264 baseline profile. A psychophysical experiment was conducted that collected data about the subjectively perceived annoyance of short video sequences as well as the perceived strength of three coding artifacts. The data provided by 52 subjects is analyzed with respect to bitrate and intra period of the encoded sequences. A new data analysis method is presented which is based on a granular data representation and enables the detection of multidimensional functional dependencies in data sets. This method is employed to establish a model for the perceived annoyance as a function of artifact strength.