A Neurophysiological Sensor-Equipped Head-Mounted Display for Instrumental QoE Assessment of Immersive Multimedia

The last few years have seen a drastic increase in the consumption of virtual- and augmented-reality (VR and AR, respectively) applications. Ultimately, the success of any emerging technology will rely on the experience it provides the end user, and not on the technology itself. Subjective methods for quality-of-experience (QoE) assessment have as main disadvantage that converting such human factors into a quality rating is difficult, particularly for everyday users. To overcome this limitation, recent research has explored the use of objective methods to monitor neurophysiological correlates of relevant perception processes. In this paper, we describe the development of a neurophysiological sensor-equipped head-mounted display that combines a consumer off-the-shelf VR headset, a modified low-cost portable device for electroencephalogram (EEG) acquisition repurposed to simultaneously acquire EEG, electrocardiogram (ECG), and electrooculogram (EOG) signals with high-quality dry electrodes. The device was evaluated under three different scenarios, each one designed to test the different ExG modalities. Initial tests showed promising results and allowed for (1) steady-state visually evoked potentials to be accurately measured from EEG, (2) heart rate variability measurements to discriminate between different affective videos, and (3) EOG measurements to monitor gaze direction and eye blinks, all while users were mobile. Being able to accurately monitor signals from the autonomic and central nervous systems in an unobtrusive and portable manner is an important step for instrumental QoE assessment of emerging VR/AR applications.