Patent ID: 8520959

Claim:
A method for determining an image quality of an image sequence comprising a plurality of images wherein images are used that are reconstructed from a data stream encoded by means of a predictive-encoding process, the method comprising the steps of: for each image in the image sequence, determining a respective flicker indicator by: specifying a first image area of a first image in the image sequence and a second image area of a subsequent second image in the image sequence, wherein the first and second image area occupy the same location within the respective first and second images, determining a coding/no coding status of the second image area of the second image based on whether the second image area has (a) undergone no coding, wherein an image content of the second image area is generated by copying an image content of the first image area, or (a) undergone coding, determining a coding/no coding status of the first image area of the first image based on whether the first image area has (a) undergone no coding, wherein an image content of the first image area is generated by copying an image content of a corresponding image area of a prior image, or (b) undergone coding, comparing the coding/no coding status of the first and second image areas, if the coding/no coding status of the second image area differs from the coding/no coding status of the first image area, setting a flicker indicator to indicate flicker in the second image area, thereby indicating a switch in the coding/no coding status from the first image area to the second image area, generating an overall flicker indicator that corresponds to a total number of flicker indicators that indicate flicker; and determining the image quality by dividing the overall flicker indicator by a total number of determined flicker indicators.