Eigen-gap of structure transition matrix: A new criterion for Image Quality Assessment

A new approach to Image Quality Assessment (IQA) is presented. The idea is based on the fact that two images are similar if their structural relationship within their blocks is preserved. To this end, a transition matrix is defined which exploits structural transitions between corresponding blocks of two images. The matrix contains valuable information about differences of two images, which should be transformed to a quality index. Eigen-value analysis over the transition matrix leads to a new distance measure called Eigen-gap. According to simulation results, the Eigen-gap is not only highly correlated to subjective scores but also, its performance is as good as the SSIM, a trustworthy index.