IEEE P2048-2 is the part of the IEEE 2048 virtual and augmented reality standards series addressing immersive video taxonomy and quality metrics. It classifies immersive video types — 180-degree and 360-degree monoscopic and stereoscopic video, volumetric capture, and view-dependent formats — and defines measurable quality attributes such as resolution per eye, frame rate, motion-to-photon latency, and perceptual quality scores, giving producers, platforms, and device makers a common basis for specifying and comparing immersive video experiences.
Semantic Classification
Content
Definition
IEEE P2048-2 occupies the quality-definition layer of the IEEE P2048 series on virtual and augmented reality. Its first task is taxonomic: immersive video is not a single format but a family — 180° and 360° video in monoscopic or stereoscopic variants, windowed and full-sphere projections, volumetric (six-degrees-of-freedom) capture, and view-dependent renderings — and the part classifies these by their capture geometry, projection, and the viewer freedom they support. Its second task is metrological: for each class it identifies the attributes that determine experienced quality, from per-eye resolution, bit depth, and frame rate through projection-induced distortion to system-level properties such as motion-to-photon latency and audio-visual synchronisation.
Quality metrics for immersive video differ fundamentally from those for flat video. Conventional measures such as PSNR or VMAF assume the whole frame is viewed on a rectangular display; in immersive playback the user sees a viewport-dependent, lens-distorted portion of a projected sphere, so equal coding error in different regions produces unequal perceptual impact, and comfort factors (latency, judder, vergence conflicts) can dominate fidelity. P2048-2’s contribution is a shared vocabulary of measurable attributes so that content producers, streaming platforms, and headset vendors can specify, test, and advertise immersive video quality on a comparable basis.
Within the series, it complements the device taxonomy of IEEE P2048.1, the immersive-video file and stream format work of IEEE P2048-3, and the person-identity scope of IEEE P2048.4: the taxonomy names the experience classes, the metrics quantify them, and the format part defines how conformant content is carried. (Note the official part numbering: P2048.3 is Immersive Video File and Stream Formats and P2048.4 is Person Identity — the reverse of an earlier, mistaken assignment.)
Current Landscape
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The IEEE VR/AR Working Group (VRARWG) lists P2048.2 “Immersive Video Taxonomy and Quality Metrics” as still in development as of 2025, alongside twelve sibling parts (P2048.1 through P2048.12); the first published deliverable in the family is IEEE 2048.101-2023, on augmented reality for mobile devices, indicating the series is only beginning to reach publication.
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ETSI’s Augmented Reality Framework report GR ARF 012 (V2.1.1, February 2026) explicitly cross-references P2048.2 (video quality) and P2048.9 (audio metrics) as the IEEE contributions to immersive-media taxonomy, quality metrics and content rating, situating the part within a wider standards landscape.
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MPEG’s overlapping work advanced in 2025-2026: the second edition of MPEG Immersive Video (6DoF playback with motion parallax) and V3C/V-PCC (ISO/IEC 23090-5, fourth edition to FDIS) supply the coding and carriage layers whose perceptual-quality evaluation P2048.2 frames.
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Extending the taxonomy and metrics to volumetric, neural-rendered and Gaussian-splat content is the part’s principal open front, consistent with its emerging maturity.
Sources:
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https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/ARF/001_099/012/02.01.01_60/gr_ARF012v020101p.pdf