The SIGMA360 project has reached another important milestone by receiving a positive opinion from the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences for the planned subjective quality assessment research involving human participants.
Another Important Project Milestone Achieved
The SIGMA360 project has reached another important milestone in its implementation. The project team has received a positive opinion from the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb, for the planned research activities involving human participants.
This approval is particularly important because subjective testing represents one of the central methodological components of the SIGMA360 project. The project will include participant-based evaluation of immersive 360° video content, with the aim of better understanding how users perceive video quality, comprehension, and overall experience in immersive environments.
The planned research will include subjective assessment of 360° video quality using Head Mounted Display devices and standardized evaluation procedures. These tests will contribute to the collection of user ratings that will later support the development of datasets, quality indicators, and predictive models within the project.
A specific part of the research will also focus on the comprehensibility of Croatian Sign Language content in 360° video. This component is important for the project’s accessibility-oriented objectives, as it connects immersive media quality assessment with the needs of deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
The Ethics Committee’s positive opinion confirms that the planned research has been assessed with regard to participant information, informed consent, data anonymization, participant wellbeing, and risk management. The research is planned to involve adult participants, while the collected data will be anonymized and used exclusively for scientific purposes.
The approval provides a necessary foundation for the next phases of the project, in which the team will prepare experimental procedures, recruit participants, conduct subjective tests, and collect quality and comprehensibility ratings for selected 360° video materials.
By obtaining this positive ethics opinion, SIGMA360 continues to build the methodological and organizational conditions required for responsible, inclusive, and scientifically grounded research. This milestone further supports the project’s broader objective of developing an open, reproducible, and accessibility-aware benchmark for immersive 360° video quality assessment.
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