Brain Imaging & Analysis Center

usage: init eyetracker port [portmode]

CIGAL can accept real-time eye-position data from an external source. For this to work you need to have an eye-camera and eye-tracking software, which is typically run on a separate computer. You need to start the eye-tracking software and set it to send streaming eye-position data via an external port. Currently, CIGAL supports the streaming data format used by the ViewPoint program from Arrington Research Inc. sent via a serial communication port (see ViewPoint).

In addition to running ViewPoint and having it send data, you must also initialize CIGAL so that it knows what type of data is coming and via which communication port. That initialization is done via the initialize command, as shown in the usage line above. The only essential initialization parameter is the serial PORT number (COM port). The PORTMODE can also be set (as described in COM) but the default value in CIGAL should already match the default serial port settings used by ViewPoint.

It is recommended that you use the Configuration Settings dialog interface in CIGAL's Settings menu to configure and save your eyetracker initialization step in a “userconfig.imp” file. That way the eyetracker interface will be automatically initialized each time you start CIGAL in the folder containing that “userconfig” file.

Once you have initialized the hardware connection to the eyetracker, CIGAL provides a real-time primitive function, r_eyepos, as part of the REALTIME processor. For most users, however, use of the eyetracker is mediated by real-time interactions preprogrammed in a suite of CIGAL macro programs. Most data acquisition is handled by the calibration program, Eyecalib, or the general-purpose behavioral paradigm program, Showplay. There are also several utility programs for processing and displaying eyetracking data. For more information on these programs, see Eyetracking.

See Also:
Eyetracking, Initialize, Configure, COM, ViewPoint), Arrington Research Inc..

CIGAL Home, CIGAL Manual, Hardware, Manual Help