Patent ID: 8711926

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configured to: obtain a histogram using a plurality of bins for a set of coefficients to be quantized, the histogram including a mapping of each coefficient in the set to one of the plurality of bins, each of the plurality of bins corresponding to a quantization step within a set of quantization steps; determine a distortion scaling factor based on the quantization step used for quantizing the set of coefficients; estimate distortion due to quantization of the set of coefficients based on a number of coefficients in each bin of the histogram, average distortions for bins of the plurality of bins, and the distortion scaling factor; and estimate perceptual quality for the set of coefficients for the plurality of bins based on the estimated distortions and at least one of spatial activity for the coefficients and temporal activity for the coefficients.