SSIM

Structural Similarity Index Measure

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Explanation
• An image quality metric that assesses the visual impact of three characteristics of an
image: luminance, contrast and structure.

• The SSIM Index quality assessment index is based on the computation of three
terms, namely the luminance term, the contrast term and the structural term. The
overall index is a multiplicative combination of the three terms.

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• μx, μy, σx,σy, and σxy are the local
means, standard deviations, and
cross-covariance for images x, y.

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In Matlab: ssimval = ssim(A,ref)
• ssimval = ssim(A,ref) calculates the structural similarity (SSIM) index for grayscale image or
volume A using ref as the reference image or volume. A value closer to 1 indicates better image quality.
• A : Image for quality measurement:
Image for quality measurement, specified as a numeric array or a dlarray (Deep Learning Toolbox) object. If A is
not a 2-D grayscale image or 3-D grayscale volume, such as an RGB image or stack of grayscale images, specify
the DataFormat name-value argument. Do not specify the DataFormat name-value argument if A is a
formatted dlarray object.
• Ref : Reference image:
Reference image against which to measure quality, specified as a numeric array or a  dlarray (Deep Learning
Toolbox) object of the same size and data type as A. If ref is not a 2-D grayscale image or 3-D grayscale volume,
such as an RGB image or stack of grayscale images, specify the DataFormat name-value argument. Do not specify
the DataFormat name-value argument if ref is a formatted dlarray object.
• ssimval : SSIM index:
Numeric scalar with a single SSIM measurement.

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Example 1

[ssimval, ssimmap] = ssim(A,ref)

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Example 2
In the following, all distorted
images have roughly the same
mean squared error (MSE) values
with respect to the original
image, but very different quality.
SSIM gives a much better
indication of image quality.

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Example 3
• The following example demonstrates the SSIM index map, which provides a
measurement of local image quality over space.

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Example 4
• since the structural information of the image details are nearly completely lost, they
exhibit poorer visual quality. Close piece-by-piece comparison of the SSIM index and
the absolute error maps, we observe that the SSIM index is more consistent with
perceived quality measurement

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• The scatter plots of the subjective measurement (mean opinion score, MOS) versus the
objective predictions (PSNR and MSSIM) are shown below, where each point represent
one test image.
• Clearly, MSSIM is much better in predicting the perceived image quality.

• PSNR: Peak Signal to Noise Ratio

• MSSIM: Mean Structural Similarity Index Measure
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