Zhichao Zhang

Dr. Zhichao Zhang

orcid

Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

9Years (2018-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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28 October 2024
Verified
Conference Paper
Open access
PWPuyi Wang
Puyi Wang
WSWei Sun
Wei Sun
ZZZicheng Zhang
Zicheng Zhang
JJJun Jia
Jun Jia
YJYanwei Jiang
Yanwei Jiang
GZGuangtao Zhai
Guangtao Zhai
Traditional deep neural network (DNN)-based image quality assessment (IQA) models leverage convolutional neural networks (CNN) or Transformer to learn the quality-aware feature representation, achieving commendable performance on natural scene images. However, when applied to AI-Generated images (AGIs), these DNN-based IQA models exhibit subpar performance. This situation is largely due to the semantic inaccuracies inherent in certain AGIs caused by uncontrollable nature of the generation process. Thus, the capability to discern semantic content becomes crucial for assessing the quality of AGIs. Traditional DNN-based IQA models, constrained by limited parameter complexity and training data, struggle to capture complex fine-grained semantic features, making it challenging to grasp the existence and coherence of semantic content of the entire image. To address the shortfall in semantic content perception of current IQA models, we introduce a large Multi-modality model Assisted AI-Generated Image Quality Assessment (MA-AGIQA) model, which utilizes semantically informed guidance to sense semantic information and extract semantic vectors through carefully designed text prompts. Moreover, it employs a mixture of experts (MoE) structure to dynamically integrate the semantic information with the quality-aware features extracted by traditional DNN-based IQA models. Comprehensive experiments conducted on two AI-generated content datasets and two traditional IQA datasets show that MA-AGIQA achieves state-of-the-art performance, and demonstrate its superior generalization capabilities on assessing the quality of AGIs. The code is available at https://github.com/wangpuyi/MA-AGIQA.

11 December 2023 in ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
ZZZicheng Zhang
Zicheng Zhang
WSWei Sun
Wei Sun
YZYingjie Zhou
Yingjie Zhou
JJJun Jia
Jun Jia
ZZZhichao Zhang
Zhichao Zhang
GZGuangtao Zhai
Guangtao Zhai
Computer graphics images (CGIs) are artificially generated by means of computer programs and are widely perceived under various scenarios, such as games, streaming media, etc. In practice, the quality of CGIs consistently suffers from poor rendering during production, inevitable compression artifacts during the transmission of multimedia applications, and low aesthetic quality resulting from poor composition and design. However, few works have been dedicated to dealing with the challenge of computer graphics image quality assessment (CGIQA). Most image quality assessment (IQA) metrics are developed for natural scene images (NSIs) and validated on databases consisting of NSIs with synthetic distortions, which are not suitable for in-the-wild CGIs. To bridge the gap between evaluating the quality of NSIs and CGIs, we construct a large-scale in-the-wild CGIQA database consisting of 6,000 CGIs (CGIQA-6k) and carry out the subjective experiment in a well-controlled laboratory environment to obtain the accurate perceptual ratings of the CGIs. Then, we propose an effective deep learning–based no-reference (NR) IQA model by utilizing both distortion and aesthetic quality representation. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms all other state-of-the-art NR IQA methods on the constructed CGIQA-6k database and other CGIQA-related databases. The database is released athttps://github.com/zzc-1998/CGIQA6K.

11 September 2025 in ACM Transactions on Multimedia Computing, Communications, and Applications
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
ZZZhichao Zhang
Zhichao Zhang
WSWei Sun
Wei Sun
LXLi Xinyue
Li Xinyue
JJJun Jia
Jun Jia
XMXiongkuo Min
Xiongkuo Min
GZGuangtao Zhai
Guangtao Zhai
In recent years, AI-driven video generation has gained significant attention due to great advancements in visual and language generative techniques. Consequently, there is a growing need for accurate Video Quality Assessment (VQA) metrics to evaluate the perceptual quality of AI-generated content (AIGC) videos and optimize video generation models. However, assessing the quality of AIGC videos remains a significant challenge because these videos often exhibit highly complex distortions, such as unnatural actions and irrational objects. To address this challenge, we systematically investigate the AIGC-VQA problem in this article, considering both subjective and objective quality assessment perspectives. For the subjective perspective, we construct the L arge-scale G enerated V ideo Q uality Assessment (LGVQ) dataset, consisting of \(2,\!808\) AIGC videos generated by six video generation models using 468 carefully curated text prompts. Unlike previous subjective VQA experiments, we evaluate the perceptual quality of AIGC videos from three critical dimensions: spatial quality, temporal quality, and text-video alignment, which hold utmost importance for current video generation techniques. For the objective perspective, we establish a benchmark for evaluating existing quality assessment metrics on the LGVQ dataset. Our findings show that current metrics perform poorly on this dataset, highlighting a gap in effective evaluation tools. To bridge this gap, we propose the U nify G enerated V ideo Q uality Assessment (UGVQ) model, designed to accurately evaluate the multi-dimensional quality of AIGC videos. The UGVQ model integrates the visual and motion features of videos with the textual features of their corresponding prompts, forming a unified quality-aware feature representation tailored to AIGC videos. Experimental results demonstrate that UGVQ achieves state-of-the-art performance on the LGVQ dataset across all three quality dimensions, validating its effectiveness as an accurate quality metric for AIGC videos. We hope that our benchmark can promote the development of AIGC-VQA studies. Both the LGVQ dataset and the UGVQ model are publicly available on https://github.com/zczhang-sjtu/UGVQ.git .

3 December 2025 in IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
YLYunhao Li
Yunhao Li
SWSijing Wu
Sijing Wu
WSWei Sun
Wei Sun
ZZZhichao Zhang
Zhichao Zhang
YZYucheng Zhu
Yucheng Zhu
GZGuangtao Zhai
Guangtao Zhai
The rapid development of text-to-image (T2I) generation approaches has attracted extensive interest in evaluating the quality of generated images, leading to the development of various quality assessment methods for general-purpose T2I outputs. However, existing image quality assessment (IQA) methods are limited to providing global quality scores, failing to deliver fine-grained perceptual evaluations for structurally complex subjects like humans, which is a critical challenge considering the frequent anatomical and textural distortions in AI-generated human images (AGHIs). To address this gap, we introduce AGHI-QA, a large-scale benchmark specifically designed for quality assessment of AGHIs. The dataset comprises 4, 000 images generated from 400 carefully crafted text prompts using 10 state-of-the-art T2I models. We conduct a systematic subjective study to collect multidimensional annotations, including perceptual quality scores, text-image correspondence scores, visible and distorted body part labels. Based on AGHI-QA, we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of current T2I methods in generating human images from multiple dimensions. Furthermore, we propose AGHI-Assessor, a novel quality metric that integrates the large multimodal model (LMM) with domain-specific human features for precise quality prediction and identification of visible and distorted body parts in AGHIs. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that AGHI-Assessor showcases state-of-the-art performance, significantly outperforming existing IQA methods in multidimensional quality assessment and surpassing leading LMMs in detecting structural distortions in AGHIs.

27 October 2025
Verified
Conference Paper
Open access
ZZZhichao Zhang
Zhichao Zhang
WSWei Sun
Wei Sun
XLXinyue Li
Xinyue Li
YLYunhao Li
Yunhao Li
QGQihang Ge
Qihang Ge
GZGuangtao Zhai
Guangtao Zhai

21 November 2025 in Expert Systems with Applications
Verified
Journal Article
Closed access
WSWei Sun
Wei Sun
LCLinhan Cao
Linhan Cao
JJJun Jia
Jun Jia
ZZZhichao Zhang
Zhichao Zhang
ZZZicheng Zhang
Zicheng Zhang
GZGuangtao Zhai
Guangtao Zhai