• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.585-589
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• 2018

Consumer demand for high quality image/video services led to growing trend in image quality enhancement study. Therefore, recent years was a period of substantial progress in this research field. Through careful observation of the image quality after processing by image enhancement algorithms, we perceived that the dark region in the image usually suffered loss of contrast to a certain extent. In this paper, the low-light stretch preprocessing algorithm is, hence, proposed to resolve the aforementioned issue. The proposed approach is evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively against the well-known histogram equalization and Photoshop curve adjustment. The evaluation results validate the efficiency and superiority of the low-light stretch over the benchmarking methods. In addition, we also propose the 255MHz-capable hardware implementation to ease the process of incorporating low-light stretch into real-time imaging systems, such as aerial surveillance and monitoring with drones and driving aiding systems.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartB
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• v.17B no.3
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• pp.233-238
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose a multiple classifier combination method based on image degradation modeling to improve recognition performance on low-quality images. Using an image degradation model, it generates a set of classifiers each of which is specialized for a specific image quality. In recognition, it combines the results of the recognizers by weighted averaging to decide the final result. At this time, the weight of each recognizer is dynamically decided from the estimated quality of the input image. It assigns large weight to the recognizer specialized to the estimated quality of the input image, but small weight to other recognizers. As the result, it can effectively adapt to image quality variation. Moreover, being a multiple-classifier system, it shows more reliable performance then the single-classifier system on low-quality images. In the experiment, the proposed multiple-classifier combination method achieved higher recognition rate than multiple-classifier combination systems not considering the image quality or single classifier systems considering the image quality.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.256-263
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• 2022

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the image quality and dose reduction of low-dose three-dimensional (3D) rotational angiography (RA) for evaluating intracranial aneurysms. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical data and 3D RA datasets obtained from 146 prospectively registered patients (male:female, 46:100; median age, 58 years; range, 19-81 years). The subjective image quality of 79 examinations obtained from a conventional method and 67 examinations obtained from a low-dose (5-seconds and 0.10-μGy/frame) method was assessed by two neurointerventionists using a 3-point scale for four evaluation criteria. The total image quality score was then obtained as the average of the four scores. The image quality scores were compared between the two methods using a noninferiority statistical testing, with a margin of -0.2 (i.e., score of low-dose group - score of conventional group). For the evaluation of dose reduction, dose-area product (DAP) and air kerma (AK) were analyzed and compared between the two groups. Results: The mean total image quality score ± standard deviation of the 3D RA was 2.97 ± 0.17 by reader 1 and 2.95 ± 0.20 by reader 2 for conventional group and 2.92 ± 0.30 and 2.95 ± 0.22, respectively, for low-dose group. The image quality of the 3D RA in the low-dose group was not inferior to that of the conventional group according to the total image quality score as well as individual scores for the four criteria in both readers. The mean DAP and AK per rotation were 5.87 Gy-cm² and 0.56 Gy, respectively, in the conventional group, and 1.32 Gy-cm² (p < 0.001) and 0.17 Gy (p < 0.001), respectively, in the low-dose group. Conclusion: Low-dose 3D RA was not inferior in image quality and reduced the radiation dose by 70%-77% compared to the conventional 3D RA in evaluating intracranial aneurysms.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.11 no.12
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• pp.39-49
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• 2013

Purpose - This study attempts to examine the underlying dimensions of service quality (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) for low-cost carriers. It subsequently seeks to determine the effect of the relationships of the dimensions of service quality, airline image, and behavioral intentions on airline services to provide adequate basic information and attributes for developing differentiated and competitive service marketing strategies. Research design, data, and methodology - The survey for this study was conducted on patrons with low-cost carrier boarding experiences in districts near universities and central businesses of Seoul and Busan from 5/10/2012 to 16/10/2012. Out of 346 questionnaires, 20 questionnaires with missing data and insincere answers were excluded for this study. Collected data were processed using SPSS 18.0, and the hypothesis was verified by analyzing the structural equation model with Lisrel 8.54. First, the frequency analysis was conducted to identify universal characteristics. Second, the exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were conducted to identify the accuracy of the variable measurements of the construct. Third, to assess uni-dimensionality and reliability, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. Finally, to verify the adequacy of the research model and research hypothesis, the structural model was employed. Results - The results revealed that the factors, "tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy" were shown to be the most important dimensions of service quality for the airline image of the low-cost carrier which was consistent with previous studies. Therefore, it is fair to suggest that these verified factors are crucial attributes for the brand image of low-cost carriers. Second, as reliability and responsiveness were shown to be the most important factors for behavioral intentions, it is viable to suggest that these two attributes are crucial for the sales value of low-cost carriers. Further, it was found that the brand image of low-cost carriers was closely related to behavioral intentions. Therefore, in order to ensure the competitiveness and loyalty of patrons, the airline image value is a crucial attribute. Conclusions - The result of this study established that service quality is the most important attribute for marketing to ensure competitiveness, and intensive and differentiated service marketing play a crucial role in creating profits for low-cost carrier companies. First, as tangibility is found to be the most crucial factor in ensuring service quality, quality control and maintenance of medium and small carriers must be provided to ensure reliability, as they are the main attributes of low-cost carriers. Second, in order to promote positive behavioral intentions, it is essential to enhance the value of airline image. Third, in order to ensure competitiveness, it is imperative to carry out intensive and differentiated service marketing. Therefore, to promote the image of low-cost carriers and enhance behavioral intentions, the level of service quality must be secured by developing appropriate service improvement programs.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1410-1419
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• 1989

In this paper, we present a new synthetic high coding method which gives high image compression ratio. Given an image, only its low-pass component is transmitted by DCT coding` the high-pass component is not transmitted but synthesized using edge sharpening on the reconstructed low-pass image at the receiver. For the DCT coding which is used to encode the low-pass image, we used an improved version of Cox's variance estimator. Also, introduced are new image quality measures called GSNR and EPR which emphasize perceptual aspects of image quality. Experimental results show that the performance of the proposed synthetic high coding is better in various quality measures than that of Cox's adaptive transform coding. Also, it yields acceptable image quality with neither apparent block effect nor visible granular noise even at high compression ratio of about 30:1.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.333-334
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• 2007

The proposed scheme provides a scheme to preview the whole image contents of low quality JPEG coded image without license and to select image quality as required. Therefore, users can confirm the image contents from low quality image without paying for previewing it and then, can see the best quality image by paying for the additional qualify of the image. The proposed scheme in this paper can be able to provide quality graded services as requested as well as protecting environment of intellectual property of digital contents.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.47-57
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• 2016

This study was conducted to verify the relationships among the image of middle-low price chain hotels, service quality, consumption value, and customer emotion by using the AMOS 22.0 statistic package program. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling methods employed for identifying the formulated hypothesis model. According to results, first, it is seen that the image of middle-low price chain hotels has positive effect on the service quality. Second, the image of middle-low price chain hotels has positive effect on the consumption value, and the consumption value has positive effect on the service quality. Third, the service quality does not have positive effect on the customer emotion. Last, the image of middle-low price chain hotels has positive effect on the customer emotion. In this study, we attempted to establish the management strategy device of middle-low price chain hotels by analyzing how the image of middle-low price chain hotels affect the service quality, consumption value, and customer emotion. As a result, when it comes to the service quality according to the image of middle-low price chain hotels, the conviction, in other words, the belief of the hotel staffs was the biggest one. In addition, when it comes to the consumption value according to the image of middle-low price chain hotels, the functional value, the kind service of the hotel staffs was seen as the highest satisfaction. More practical and theoretical implications for developing marketing strategy in context of middle-low price chain hotels has been suggested in conclusions.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.11-19
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• 2023

In this paper, it is confirmed that the metrics used to evaluate image quality can be applied to low-light images. Due to the nature of low-illumination images, factors related to light create various noise patterns, and the smaller the amount of light, the more severe the noise. Therefore, in situations where it is difficult to obtain a clean image without noise, the quality of a low-illuminance image from which noise has been removed is often judged by the human eye. In this paper, noise in low-illuminance images for which ground truth cannot be obtained is removed using Noise2Noise, and spatial resolution and radial resolution are evaluated using ISO 12233 charts and colorchecker as metrics such as MTF and SNR. It can be shown that the quality of the low-illuminance image, which has been evaluated mainly for qualitative evaluation, can also be evaluated quantitatively.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.36-41
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• 2018

An image intensifying device is equipment that makes weak objects visible in a dark environment, such as making nighttime bright enough to let objects be visually observed. It is possible to obtain a clear image by amplifying the light in the presence of a certain amount of weak light. However, in an extremely low-light environment, where even moonlight is not present, there is not enough light to amplify anything, and the sharpness of the screen deteriorates. In this paper, a method is proposed to improve image quality by using multiple filters and anisotropic diffusion for output noise of the image-intensifying device in extreme low-light environments. For the experiment, the output of the image-intensifying device was obtained under extremely low-light conditions, and signal processing for improving the image quality was performed. The configuration of the filters for signal processing uses anisotropic diffusion after applying a median filter and a Wiener filter for effective removal of salt-and-pepper noise and Gaussian noise, which constitute the main noise appearing in the image. Experimental results show that the improvement visually enhanced image quality. Both peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and SSIM, which are quantitative indicators, show improved values.

• Imaging Science in Dentistry
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.75-86
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• 2017

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to apply a newly developed free software program, at low cost and with minimal time, to evaluate the quality of dental and maxillofacial cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images. Materials and Methods: A polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantom, CQP-IFBA, was scanned in 3 CBCT units with 7 protocols. A macro program was developed, using the free software ImageJ, to automatically evaluate the image quality parameters. The image quality evaluation was based on 8 parameters: uniformity, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), noise, the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), spatial resolution, the artifact index, geometric accuracy, and low-contrast resolution. Results: The image uniformity and noise depended on the protocol that was applied. Regarding the CNR, high-density structures were more sensitive to the effect of scanning parameters. There were no significant differences between SNR and CNR in centered and peripheral objects. The geometric accuracy assessment showed that all the distance measurements were lower than the real values. Low-contrast resolution was influenced by the scanning parameters, and the 1-mm rod present in the phantom was not depicted in any of the 3 CBCT units. Smaller voxel sizes presented higher spatial resolution. There were no significant differences among the protocols regarding artifact presence. Conclusion: This software package provided a fast, low-cost, and feasible method for the evaluation of image quality parameters in CBCT.