On the assessment of high-quality images: advances on the JPEG AIC-3 activity

Recent advances in image compression have made it both possible and desirable for image quality to approach the visually lossless range. However, the most commonly used subjective visual quality assessment protocols, e.g. those reported in ITU-T Rec. BT.500, are ineffective in evaluating images with visual quality between high to nearly visually lossless. In this context, the JPEG Committee has initiated a renewed activity on the Assessment of Image Coding, also referred to as JPEG AIC, aiming at standardizing new subjective and objective image quality assessment methodologies applicable in the quality range from high to nearly visually lossless. For this purpose, a Call for Contributions on Subjective Image Quality Assessment was issued with a deadline in April 2023, and a Call for Proposals on Objective Image Quality Assessment is expected to be issued in the near future. This paper aims at providing an overview of submissions to the Call for Contributions and present the recent advances of this activity, as well as its future directions.