# DEFNet: Multitasks-based Deep Evidential Fusion Network for Blind Image Quality Assessment

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.19418 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19418/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 26 of its 70 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Jul 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [MUSIQ: Multi-scale Image Quality Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05997/) (2021)
- [End-to-End Multi-Task Learning with Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10704/) (2018)
- [Deep Evidential Regression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.02600/) (2019)
- [KonIQ-10k: An ecologically valid database for deep learning of blind image quality assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.06180/) (2019)
- [Blind Image Quality Assessment Using A Deep Bilinear Convolutional Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.02665/) (2019)
- [Blind Image Quality Assessment via Vision-Language Correspondence: A Multitask Learning Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14968/) (2023)
- [TOPIQ: A Top-down Approach from Semantics to Distortions for Image Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03060/) (2023)
- [From Patches to Pictures (PaQ-2-PiQ): Mapping the Perceptual Space of Picture Quality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.10088/) (2019)
- [Massive Online Crowdsourced Study of Subjective and Objective Picture Quality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.02919/) (2015)
- [PIPAL: a Large-Scale Image Quality Assessment Dataset for Perceptual Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.12142/) (2020)
- [No-Reference Image Quality Assessment via Transformers, Relative Ranking, and Self-Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.06858/) (2021)
- [Uncertainty-Aware Blind Image Quality Assessment in the Laboratory and Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.13983/) (2020)
- [Re-IQA: Unsupervised Learning for Image Quality Assessment in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.00451/) (2023)
- [dipIQ: Blind Image Quality Assessment by Learning-to-Rank Discriminable Image Pairs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.06505/) (2019)
- [Trustworthy Multimodal Regression with Mixture of Normal-inverse Gamma Distributions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.08456/) (2021)
- [A Probabilistic Quality Representation Approach to Deep Blind Image Quality Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.08190/) (2017)
- [Underwater Image Restoration Through a Prior Guided Hybrid Sense Approach and Extensive Benchmark Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.02701/) (2025)
- [Underwater Image Restoration via Polymorphic Large Kernel CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18459/) (2024)
- [Generalized Uncertainty-Based Evidential Fusion with Hybrid Multi-Head Attention for Weak-Supervised Temporal Action Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.19418/) (2024)
- [MMGET: A Markov model for generalized evidence theory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.07952/) (2021)
- [LensNet: An End-to-End Learning Framework for Empirical Point Spread Function Modeling and Lensless Imaging Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01755/) (2025)
- [EPL: Evidential Prototype Learning for Semi-supervised Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06181/) (2024)
- [Light Field Image Quality Assessment With Auxiliary Learning Based on Depthwise and Anglewise Separable Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.07079/) (2024)
- [High-Fidelity Functional Ultrasound Reconstruction via A Visual Auto-Regressive Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21530/) (2025)
- [MAC-Lookup: Multi-Axis Conditional Lookup Model for Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.02270/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Blind image quality assessment (BIQA) methods often incorporate auxiliary tasks to improve performance. However, existing approaches face limitations due to insufficient integration and a lack of flexible uncertainty estimation, leading to suboptimal performance. To address these challenges, we propose a multitasks-based Deep Evidential Fusion Network (DEFNet) for BIQA, which performs multitask optimization with the assistance of scene and distortion type classification tasks. To achieve a more robust and reliable representation, we design a novel trustworthy information fusion strategy. It first combines diverse features and patterns across sub-regions to enhance information richness, and then performs local-global information fusion by balancing fine-grained details with coarse-grained context. Moreover, DEFNet exploits advanced uncertainty estimation technique inspired by evidential learning with the help of normal-inverse gamma distribution mixture. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and authentic distortion datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed framework. Additional evaluation and analysis are carried out to highlight its strong generalization capability and adaptability to previously unseen scenarios.