EVOLVE-QoE – Ecological Validity Evaluation of Interactive Virtual Environments

EVOLVE-QoE is part of the DFG Priority Programme AUDICTIVE (SPP 2236), which connects research in acoustics, auditory cognition, and immersive media to better understand how humans perceive and interpret complex audiovisual scenes. Within this programme, EVOLVE-QoE investigates how Interactive Virtual Environments (IVEs) differ from real-world settings (Interactive Real Environments, IREs) in terms of human perception, cognition, and Quality of Experience (QoE). In addition, the project develops a comprehensive framework for evaluating the ecological validity of audiovisual scenes used in immersive media research.

To achieve these objectives, EVOLVE-QoE combines top-down human-centric approaches—including head and eye tracking, engagement measures, and behavioral analysis—with bottom-up instrumental methods for audiovisual scene characterization. By extending the existing IVE scene database with new explorable VR scenes and their corresponding real-world counterparts, the project identifies which scene and system characteristics influence auditory cognition and QoE in complex, real-life-like situations. Ultimately, EVOLVE-QoE delivers annotated datasets, analytical tools, and methodological insights to advance QoE research in immersive media, contributing to open and reproducible science within the AUDICTIVE framework.

The programme’s overarching goal is to bridge real and virtual experiences by studying how auditory and multimodal perception operates in natural, everyday environments.