Models of human perception

As communications systems have increased in complexity it has become increa singly difficult to measure their performance objectively. In particular, w hen signals are compressed for more efficient transmission, conventional en gineering metrics fail to predict the performance experienced by the end us er - the customer. A new generation of objective measurement techniques is emerging based on models of human perception. Such models are potentially a ble to predict subjective performance for a wide range of transmission tech nologies. This paper introduces auditory and visual perceptual models and d escribes the development at BT Laboratories of models suitable for performa nce assessment. Early applications of the models are also described.