User manual

An EyeLink 1000 Tutorial: Running an Experiment

3.14 Experiment Practice

The TRACK.EXE program is the most flexible way to practice the EyeLink 1000

setup, allowing almost any sequence of actions to be performed. In real

experiments, the sequence of actions is much more defined. Usually the

experiment begins with subject setup and calibration from the Setup menu,

perhaps followed by practice trials. Then a series of experimental trials are

performed, sometimes with a drift correction before each trial.

This flow allows little room for practice, and makes it important that initial

setup and calibration be performed correctly and carefully validated. The

EyeLink tracker has a built-in trial-abort menu, which may be used in

experiments to terminate trials where setup problems are seen. The Setup

menu may then be used to fix eye setup or calibration, and the interrupted trial

may be restarted or skipped. This sequence requires co-operation from the

experiment application, and example code is provided in the developer’s kit.

3.15 Next Steps: Other Sample Experiments

There are several sample experiments that are valuable demonstrations of how

the EyeLink 1000 system can be used and programmed. This section describes

each sample experiments purpose and use. For detailed information on the

programming / API aspect of these samples, please refer to the EyeLink

Programmer’s guide.

Each sample experiment can be launched from the

Start->Programs -> SR

Research -> EyeLink -> Programming -> Runtime API -> GDI (or SDL) Examples

item.

All sample experiments have the following key shortcuts that can be used from

the Display PC keyboard. These keys are available after the experiment has

started and a Data File name has been entered.

ENTER

View camera or accept Calibration / Validation if Calibration /

Validation has just been performed

<- or ->

Select the zoomed or global camera view.

Perform Calibration

Perform Validation

Start experiment

A. Simple

This experiment is the most basic EyeLink sample experiment. The program

performs the following steps:

i. Initialize the EyeLink library and connect to the EyeLink tracker.