Spatial flicker effect in video scaling

Abstract

Scalable video streaming may result in flicker effects - visual artifacts in video presentation due to adaptive layer switching. In our work, we have identified three types of flicker, noise, blur and motion flicker. Here, we investigate the blur and noise flicker, which are both related to the spatial domain. The perceptual impact of blur and noise flicker is explored through subjective assessments, focusing on acceptance of variations in the amplitudes and frequencies of the quality changes, across four content types. Our results indicate that the perception and acceptance of different layer variations are jointly influenced by multiple factors. When video scaling is required, frequency can be adjusted to relieve the annoyance of flicker artifacts, while amplitude still plays the dominant role in delivering satisfactory video quality. In addition, contents with complex details are more affected by blur flicker than other contents. This difference is not observed for noise flicker.