Tutorials

Tutorials

Randomize the order my stimulus is shown

By default, GazeTracker will display stimuli in the order in which they were added to the Slide Show Wizard. However, the order can be modified on the Image/Video Slides section of the Slide Show Wizard. When modified in this manner, the order will remain consistent for each recording session.  GazeTracker can also be set to display the stimulus in a random order that will change for each recording session. This tutorial will walk you through setting up an experiment with a random stimulus order.

  1. Create a new experiment, by clicking the New Experiment option under the Application Button
    This will bring up the Session Selection dialog
  2. Choose either Image Analysis or Video Analysis depending on your experiment and click the OK button
    This will bring up the Slide Show Wizard
  3. Setup your Intro/Buffer Slide and click Next.  For more information on this please see the “What are intro and buffer slides used for?” in the FAQ section.
  4. Add your desired stimuli to the stimulus list by clicking Add and choosing the files from your computer
  5. Once you had added all the desired stimuli to the stimulus list, check the Randomize slide presentation order check box.
  6. Click the Next button and proceed through the rest of the wizard to finish creating your experiment.

Note: GazeTracker will always show each stimulus in the list during each recording.  Setting Random will simply ensure that the order will be different for each recording.

Note: You can see the stimulus order for a recording session by Save Order… button in the Properties pane.  See the “How do I retrieve the order in which a randomized experiment was presented?” FAQ for more information.

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Capture responses from the subject

GazeTracker will always record keyboard input as well as mouse clicks in all three experiment types (Image, Video and Application).  Application experiments will also record mouse movement data. These input events are displayed on the timeline and can optionally be exported along with recorded gaze data.

In many studies you will want to advance the stimulus based on subject input.  This tutorial will walk you through setting that up.

  1. Create a new experiment, by clicking the New Experiment option under the Application Button
    This will bring up the Session Selection dialog
  2. Choose either Image Analysis or Video Analysis depending on your experiment and click the OK button
    This will bring up the Slide Show Wizard
  3. Setup your Intro/Buffer Slide and click Next.  For more information on this please see the “What are intro and buffer slides used for?” in the FAQ section
  4. Add your desired stimulus to the stimulus list by clicking Add and choosing the files from your computer and click Next
  5. Set Sound Synchronization options and click Next
    You should now be on the Advancement Mode pane of the wizard

  6. Make sure that Advance slide by pressing a key or mouse button box is checked
  7. The space bar is setup for advancement by default.  To modify this setting click the Choose… button
    This will bring up the Key Selection dialog that allows you to modify the keys which advance the stimulus slide

  8. From this dialog you can add and remove which input events advance the slide
    1. To Remove an input event, select it and click the Remove button
    2. To add an input event, click the Add… button

    This will display the Choose Key dialog.  Click the key on your keyboard or the mouse button that you want to add to the list, or click the Cancel button

  9. Click OK when you are done setting up the input events you want to advance the slide
  10. Click the Next button to advance to the next step of the Slide Show Wizard and proceed through the remaining steps to finish the wizard

Note: All input events are logged, regardless of whether they are set up to advance the stimulus.  Both the key down and key up input events are logged on the timeline with a vertical line. You can place your mouse over each line to see details such as what input event occurred and when exactly it occurred.

Note: When a key stroke is set to advance the stimulus, the advance will occur as soon as the key is pressed down.  However, both the down and up events will be recorded at the exact time at which they occurred. This could mean that the mouse up event occurs on the next stimulus.

Note:  To use a response box with GazeTracker, it will need to be configured to send a keyboard or mouse event to the GazeTracker computer. These events will then be recorded by GazeTracker as if they came from the normal keyboard or mouse.

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Synchronize GazeTracker with external systems

GazeTracker has the ability to send event notifications over the parallel port.  This can be very useful when synchronizing GazeTracker with other metrics such as a heart rate monitor or an EEG.  This tutorial will cover setting up parallel port notifications for Recording Start, Recording End and Slide Changes.

  1. Open GazeTracker
  2. Open the experiment for which you want to set up the notifications
    1. Do this by either double clicking the experiment in the Experiment Explorer
    2. Or by creating a new experiment
  3. Click on the Options tab of the Ribbon
  4. Click the Parallel Port button in the Other Group
    This will bring up the Parallel Port Settings dialog box.  From this dialog you can set up notifications.  All notifications in GazeTracker are transmitted by raising or activating one or more pins on the parallel port for a specified number of seconds.  Software on the other end needs to be set up to respond to the pin raises.  This will generally be done by software that is controlling the other metrics.
  5. Add a check the box next to the event you wish to raise by clicking on it
  6. Choose the pin(s) you wish to raise by adding a check on the box to their left
  7. Next set the amount of time you wish to leave that pin raised by typing that number into the Lower pin(s) after: text box.
  8. Click the OK button to confirm you settings

Note:  While there are 25 pins on the standard parallel port, only pins two through nine are used for data.

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Shift the gaze points in a GazeTracker recording

The first thing you need to ask yourself is, “Why do I want to shift the data points in GazeTracker?”  It is important to understand that GazeTracker plots exactly what it receives from the eye tracking hardware and if the data that is shown in GazeTracker is not what you expected, it could be because that is what the eye tracking hardware output.  Incorrect or noisy data is generally a sign of poor performance of the eye tracker during the recording.  The shift data option in GazeTracker is simply applying another modification to the data -  a modification which does not necessarily ‘correct the data’.   That said, there are times when shifting the data is appropriate.  This tutorial will cover two methods for shifting recorded gaze data.

  1. Open a recording session in GazeTracker by expanding the Experiment in the Experiment Explorer and double clicking the recording you wish to adjust
    This will load the selected recording into the Stimulus pane.
  2. Navigate to the slide that contains the data you wish to shiftOne of the most common problems with gaze data is when a set of the data is all incorrect in a similar fashion.  For instance, if you have a fixed head eye tracker and the subject moves their head during recording this will often cause a constant error of the points while the user has moved their head from the point in which it was calibrated.  This error can be corrected using the Constant Offset Shifting, which literally moves all gaze points in given time range by a set amount.
  3. Click on the Options tab, then click the  button
    This will open the Data Shifts dialog box.  The Data Shifts dialog box lists any data shifts that have been applied to the current slide, as well as allowing you to add new data shifts and edit or delete existing shifts.
  4. Click the Add button to add a new programmatic data shift
    This will open the Data Shift Wizard dialog.  Unless instructed by technical support you should always use the Constant Offset Data Shift, the Algorithmic Data Shift is to compensate for a specific error.  For more information on the algorithmic data shift see “When should I use algorithmic data shift?” FAQ
  5. Choose the radio button next to Constant Offset Data Shift to select it
  6. Click the Next button
    This will open the Constant Offset Shifting Options dialog box.
  7. Set the Horizontal pixels.  A negative number will move the point to the left and a positive number will move the point to the right
  8. Set the Vertical pixels.  A negative number will move the point up and a positive number will move the point down
  9. Choose the timeframe over which to shift the points
    1. Shift data over the entire data slide will shift all points on the currently selected slide
    2. Specify time interval to shift will shift just the data points in the given time period.  The time period is for the current slide, not the entire recording, so 0 the start of the current slide.
    3. Shift data for all data slides will shift all data points for the entire recording
  10. Click Next and then Finish to commit the data shift
    This will take you back to the Data Shifts dialog box with the shift listed.  The shift should also be applied to the data in the Stimulus Pane. It is important to note that data shifts are cumulative and are applied from the top of the list to the bottom.
  11. Click OK to close the Data Shifts dialog box

The second method is to literally drag and drop the gaze points and fixations on the stimulus view.

  1. Open the full screen view by clicking the  button on the lower right of the Stimulus pane.
  2. Press the left mouse button down over the Gaze Point or Fixation to begin the drag, release the mouse when the Gaze Point or Fixation has been corrected, dropping it in its desired location.

Note:  GazeTracker will only allow you to move a gaze point within a set error radius.

Note: The original data is preserved after a data shift.  To revert to the original, data you would simply delete or disable the data shift from the Data Shifts dialog.

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Setup moving LookZones

Moving LookZones are a very powerful feature in GazeTracker and are quite easy to use once you take a moment to understand how they are implemented.   Moving LookZones are most often used with Video Analysis, where the LookZone actually moves over top of an element in the video.  For instance, the demo video experiment that installs with GazeTracker has moving LookZones that track a number of elements, such as the red car and the biker.  This tutorial will walk you through creating your own moving LookZones.

  1. Open the experiment on which you plan to add a moving LookZone.
  2. Use the Time box along with the blue arrows on the Home Tab of the Ribbon to navigate the video to the point which you want the moving LookZone to appear.
  3. Click the LookZones tab and choose
    This will full screen the stimulus and bring up the Add LookZones dialog
  4. Click and drag out your LookZone
    This will bring up the LookZone Properties dialog
  5. Name your new LookZone and click OK
    This will take you back to the full screen mode with your new LookZone on the screen.
  6. Click Done on the Apply LookZones dialog box
    A message box will come up asking you to save your LookZone layout
  7. Click the Yes button
    This will bring up the Save LookZones dialog
  8. Enter a name for your LookZone Layout in the Name box, put a check in the Save for entire slide show and click OK
    A message box will appear asking you to save your experiment. You must save your experiment again to associate the LookZone Layout with the experiment.
  9. Click Yes
    The Save Data dialog box will appear
  10. Either choose an experiment from the list to overwrite, or type a new name in the Name box and click the OK button
  11. Click to go into full screen mode
    From here you can setup the movements for your newly created LookZone
  12. Set the LookZone to appear at the current time by right-clicking it and choosing Set to Appear at [the current time]
  13. Enter Set Movements Mode by right clicking on the LookZone and choose Set Movements
    The toolbar will grow to show the set movement options.The next thing to do is watch the video and determine where the moving LookZone needs to make a noticeable change in size, direction or velocity. For each such moment, set the LookZone to the correct size and position at that point in the video and pin it.  GazeTracker will interpolate the LookZone movement between those pinned or key frames saving you the work.
  14. Move the LookZone to the correct size and location and pin the position by click the down arrow on your keyboard or click the on the toolbar. You can also right-click on the LookZone and choose Pin Position
    Once you have set up your key frames the movement of the LookZone should be close to correct.  We generally recommend stepping back through the video and adjusting the LookZone as necessary by adding additional pinned positions.

  15. Use the left and right arrow on your keyboard or on the toolbar to step through the video. The LookZone should do a pretty good job following your path, correct it and click the down arrow when it needs adjustment
  16. Once you get to the last frame you want your LookZone to be visible, right click it and choose Set Disappears at [current time]
  17. To commit all your changes to the current moving LookZone, click the on the toolbar or right-click the LookZone and choose Commit Movements
    This will take you back to the full screen stimulus mode

  18. Press the F2 key on your keyboard or Click the to exit full screen mode

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Create and Modify LookZones

LookZones are one of the most powerful analytical tools inside of GazeTracker.  This tutorial will show you how to create a new LookZone as well as how to modify existing LookZones.

To Create a LookZone

  1. Open the Experiment containing the side on which you wish to create the LookZone
  2. Click on the LookZones tab at the top, then click on the button
    This will pull the Stimulus Pane into full screen and bring up the Apply LookZones dialog.
  3. Use the buttons to navigate to the slide where you want to add a LookZone.
  4. There are two ways to create new LookZones depending on the shape you need:
    1. You can create a rectangular LookZone by doing a left mouse click and drag.  To do this move the mouse to the top left corner of the desired LookZone, press hold the left mouse button down.  Drag out your rectangle by moving your mouse, when the LookZone is the size you want simply release the left mouse button to commit the LookZone
    2. You can create irregular shaped LookZones by using the right mouse button.  Each time you click the right mouse button GazeTracker will place a LookZone anchor and connect that anchor to the previous anchor with a straight line.  When you want to connect back to the original anchor, simply click the left mouse button.

    Once you have created a new LookZone the LookZone Properties dialog box will appear.  This dialog gives the basic options for the LookZone you just created.  You can access the advanced options by clicking the More Options >> button at the bottom.  See the manual for a detailed description of the LookZone Properties dialog.

  5. Type a name for your newly created LookZone in the LookZone Name: box.  The name is primary way the LookZone is referred to in GazeTracker’s analytical outputs.
  6. Click OK to commit the LookZone
    You will be taken to the full screen stimulus with the Apply LookZones dialog
  7. Repeat steps 4-6 to add as many LookZones as you require
  8. Click the Done button when you are finished adding LookZones
    You will be presented with a message box asking you to save your newly created LookZones
  9. Click the Yes button
    This will bring up the Save LookZones dialog which will save your current LookZone Layout
  10. There are two ways you can save your LookZone Layout
    1. To save the entire experiment as one LookZone Layout, you will want to give it a name, check the Save for entire slide show box and then click OK
    2. To save the LookZones on a single slide to a LookZone Layout, you will want to give it a name, make sure that Save for entire slide show is not checked and click OK. Next you will be asked to select the slide you with to save and click OK

    You then get a message box asking you to save your experiment

  11. Click Yes
    This will bring up the Save Data dialog
  12. Click OK to save your experiment

To modify an existing LookZone

  1. Open the Experiment to the slide with the LookZone that you wish to modify
  2. Click the button to bring the slide up full screen and allow editing
  3. From here you can drag an existing LookZone to a new Location.  You can also drag the square anchors at the corners of your LookZone to resize it.  Right clicking on the LookZone and choosing Options… will bring up the LookZone Properties dialog.

Note:  You can always exit full screen mode by clicking the F2 key on your keyboard

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Utilize LookZone Collections

LookZone’s can be added to groups called LookZone Collections. LookZone collections are either to group similar LookZones for organizational reasons or to group LookZones that you want to behave the same. In this tutorial we will go through setting up LookZone collections that appear all at the same time. The scenario is that we only care if the subject looks at the buildings after they have looked at the boats in the first image in the demo experiment.
1. Double click the “Demo” experiment under Image Experiments
2. Use the buttons to navigate to the image with the buildings
3. The first thing we want to do is make sure that that the “Buildings” LookZone Collection is not active to start with. To do this click the button.
This will bring up the Choose Active Collections dialog
4. By default all LookZone collections are active. In this scenario we don’t want the Buildings collection to be active until the subject looks at one of the boats. So click on the “Buildings” listing, which will turn its background from blue to white indicating that it is on selected. Click the OK button to save this setting
This will cause the Choose Active Collections dialog to disappear. The next thing we want to do is set it up so that as soon as someone looks at any of the boats the “Buildings” collection will become active. To do this:
5. Click the button in the lower right of the Stimulus pane
This will bring the stimulus up in full screen and allow you to modify the LookZones
6. Right click on the LookZone around the large boat and choose Options…
This will bring up the LookZone Properties dialog
7. Click on the to open the advanced options
8. Next you will want to click on the radio button next to Respond by gaze. The default is to respond as soon as the subject looks at this LookZone. If you want them to have to look at a LookZone for a set amount of time before responding you can increase this value.
9. Because we want to activate the Buildings LookZone Collection we need to choose the Activate a collection and choose the “Buildings” option
10. Click the OK button
11. The LookZone Properties window will disappear. the LookZone around the large boat is now setup.
12. We now need to repeat steps 6 through 10 for the “SmallBoat” LookZone
13. Click “F2” to exit full screen mode

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Utilize Trail Truncation

Trail truncation is an option within GazeTracker that limits the gaze points to only a certain time before and after the current time during a recording. This is particularly critical when the slide stimulus changes such as in Video Analysis. To set up Trail Truncation in GazeTracker
1. Load the experiment
2. Click on the Options tab
3. You will see Gaze Trail group on the ribbon

4. If Enable Trail Truncation is not highlighted in orange (as above), you will need to click on it.
This will enable the Start delta (s) and End delta (s) text boxes
5. The Start Delta is the time in seconds of gaze data to display before the current time, so basically before the displayed time. We normally recommend setting this to 2
6. The End delta (s) is the time in seconds of gaze data to display after the current time, so basically after the current time, or into the future. We normally recommend setting this to .2
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Analyze data on a different computer from the recording computer?

There are often times when you will want to analyze data on a different machine then the one that was
used to record the data. All Experiment settings along with any recording sessions for the experiments
are stored in a single database. Other then the database, you will also need move over any stimulus
files that are used in the experiments. This tutorial will cover those steps:

Export the experiment

The first thing you will need to do is locate the database file as well as stimulus files on the recording
computer. These steps will need to be done on the recording computer
1. Open GazeTracker
2. Right click on the experiment group (Image
Experiments/Application Experiments/Video Experiments) in the
Experiment Explorer, and choose Properties
This will load the database options into the Properties
pane below
3. Click on the button to back up the database
This will bring up the Backup Database File dialog. This dialog allows you to save or
“backup” your database to a new location.
4. Save the database to your removable media or shared network.
5. Select the first recording by double clicking it.
This will load the Properties pane. Each one of your slides
will have the path to stimulus listed. You might need to
scroll to the right to see the entire path.
6. Navigate to each stimulus image/video and copy it to your
removable media or network
You have now effectively exported everything you need in order to analyze your
experiment to your removable media or network share. At this point you should change
to the computer that you want to use for analysis and follow the steps below to do the
import

Import the Experiment

1. Copy the database and stimulus files to the new computer
2. Open GazeTracker
3. Right click on the experiment group (Image Experiments/Application Experiments/Video
Experiments) in the Experiment Explorer, and choose Change Database…
This will open the Database Management dialog
4. Click the Browse…
This will open the Open Database File dialog
5. Navigate to where you saved the database and click Open 6. Click the OK button on the Database Management dialog box to load the new
database
You should see your experiment and recordings load into the Experiment
Explorer pane.
7. Double click on the first recording to load it
This will load the recording properties into the Properties pane
8. Double click on slide in the Properties pane to load the slide into the
Stimulus pane
If you see the error”Cannot display image:” in the Stimulus pane, that means that your
stimulus files have been moved from the location on the original computer. If the
stimulus is shown as expected you can skip the rest of this tutorial, otherwise we will
show you how to correct the path for broken stimulus

7. Right click on the slide with the missing stimulus in the Properties pane and choose Redirect
This will bring up the Redirect dialog, showing the original stimulus path
8. Click on the Browse… button
This will open the Select Image File dialog
9. Navigate to the new stimulus location in the Select Image File dialog, after you select the
stimulus, click the Open button
This will take you back to the Redirect dialog with the updated path
10. Click Open
If you have redirected the stimulus currently show in the Stimulus page, and then you
should see your newly select stimulus appear. You will also see a GazeTracker Notice
telling you that you must save the experiment.
11. We will save our experiment at the end, so click No on the GazeTracker Notice message box
asking you to save the experiment.
12. Correct the stimulus for each slide in the experiment by repeating steps 8 through 11 for each
slide
Now that you have corrected each of the slides in the experiment it is time to save it
13. Click on the Application Button and choose
This will bring up the Save Data dialog
14. By default the experiment you have been working on will be selected. Choose OK to save over
the old experiment with the new stimulus paths.
This will bring up a GazeTracker Notice asking whether to save or destroy the recording
sessions.
15. Choose the No button to not lose all of the recorded data
Note: Each experiment type (Image/Application/Video) has its own database file. If you try to open
the wrong type of database file you will get an error saying “The wrong type if database has been
selected!
Note: Updating the stimulus location for one recording will update it for all
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Define what constitutes a fixation

A visual fixation is defined as the maintaining of the visual gaze on a single location. It is important to
understand that GazeTracker does not receive fixation information for the eye tracker, only a series of
discrete gazepoints. Neither the length of time, nor the size/location of a fixation are hard numbers,
which leaves those settings up to the researcher. Fixations are represented in GazeTracker with a black circle that contains the fixation number, and the length of the overall fixation which can also optionally determine the diameter of the fixation circle.

The Fixation options are located on the Options tab on the ribbon at the top.

GazeTracker has 3 settings for defining what is considered a fixation:

  • Points: This sets the minimum number of contiguous GazePoints that is required before a fixation can exist.
  • Duration (s): This is the minimum duration in seconds that the gaze points must span to be considered a fixation.
  • Diameter (pixels): This sets the area in which the GazePoints must occur to be included as part of the fixation.

Example (see the above screenshot of the Fixation settings):

With the default settings, a 60Hz eye tracker records 15 GazePoints in the required 0.25 seconds, which means that assuming all points are in the required distance, 12 of the points can be lost before the points setting will disqualify a Fixation.  Keep in mind a data gap larger then the Gap Interval from the GazeTrail Options will also break a fixation.  The default gap interval is .035, or approximately 2 points at 60Hz, so in this scenario the gap interval will break a fixation before the fixation points setting.  The fixation points setting will come into play with slower eye trackers. For more information on the gap interval, see “What is the Gap Interval setting and when should I change it?” from the Frequently Asked Questions.

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Use Automatic Creation of LookZones on webpages to capture specific page elements

LookZones or Areas of Interest (AOI) are one of the most powerful features in GazeTracker.  In most software, adding AOIs can be a tedious and time consuming task.  GazeTracker offers many features to make this task easier.  One of those features is Automatic LookZone Creation based on HTML tags.  In this tutorial we will go through having GazeTracker automatically add LookZones around the blog titles on our MSDN sample experiment.

The first thing we need to do is determine the appropriate Tag, Attribute and/or Value so GazeTracker will automatically create the LookZones

Determine which HTML Tag to use

  1. Load the first recording for the Demo Experiment under Application/Web Experiment by double clicking it.
    This will load the experiment properties into the Properties pane below
  2. Click on the first website slide listed “MSDNBlogs”
    This may give you a GazeTracker Notice asking to open “iexplorer”.  Click the Yes button, which will open the page in internet explorer and load it into the Stimulus pane.  If it does not automatically load the Stimulus pane, click back on GazeTracker, which should force the load
  3. Click on the Internet Explorer button on the task bar.
    This will bring Internet Explorer forward
  4. Click View and then choose Source from the drop down menu. If your menus are not visible, right-click on the page and choose View Source
    This will open the source view for the website
  5. Press Ctrl+F to open the Find dialog
  6. Type the first title “BCS” and click Next
    This should find the text from the first title
  7. Look for a unique HTML tag around this item

In this case that tag is “<H4>”

The next steps will walk you through creating LookZones around the tag we found

Create the automatic LookZones from an HTML Tag

  1. Click on the GazeTracker button on the task bar
    This will bring GazeTracker forward
  2. Click on the LookZones tab in the ribbon
  3. Click on the button
    This will bring up the Automatic LookZone Creation Options dialog
  4. Click the New… button next to the Specify elements: table
    This will bring up the Element Dialog that will allow for custom automatic LookZones.  This offers boxes for Tag, Attribute, Value, and LZ Name.  HTML tags are normally formed <[Tag] [Attribute]=[Value]>; the value may or may not be surrounded by quotes; if it is, simply ignore them.  Looking at the tag we determined earlier we saw it was “<H4 class=BlogPostHeader”.   The coloring is done by the program showing the source code and may not be present.
  5. type “H4” into the Tag textbox
  6. Type “class” into the Attribute textbox
  7. Type “BlogPostHeader” into the Value textbox
  8. You can name the LookZones anything, for this example type “Blog Post Header” into the LZ Name textbox
  9. Click OK
    The Element Dialog box will disappear, and you will see your newly created entry in the Specify Elements table
  10. Click the Create LookZones button
  11. Click OK to create the LookZones
    Your LookZones will need to now be saved.  To do this:
  12. Click
    This will bring up the Save LookZones dialog box
  13. Enter a name into the Name textbox and click the OK button to confirm the save

Note:  Automatically created LookZones will not appear in the stimulus window until you refresh the experiment.  Do this by clicking the button on the Home tab of the ribbon.

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Use Questionnaires

Questionnaires can be used to collect additional information from the study subjects.  In this tutorial we will create a pre survey that will collect some basic demographic information.

  1. Double click the “Demo” experiment under Image Experiments
  2. Click the Questionnaire tab in the ribbon to bring up the questionnaire tasks
  3. Click the button to start the questionnaire wizard
    This will bring up the Select Question Type dialog.  This is where you set whether your questionnaire will appear before or after the stimulus.  We want to create the pre-questionnaire to collect demographic information about the subject
  4. Make sure Pre-questionnaire is selected
  5. Click OK
    This will take us to the New Questionnaire dialog that allows us to set up the questions
  6. Click the button to create a new question
    This brings up the Edit Question dialog.  From here we could edit the question caption and set the text of the question
  7. We want to know the subjects gender, so type “Gender” into the Question Text, text area
  8. Click OK
  9. Click the button to add an available response
    This will bring up the Edit Answer dialog, where we can type the possible answer to the selected question
  10. Type “Male” into the answer text area
  11. Click OK
    Repeat steps 10 and 11 to add any additional answers you wish to make available to the subjectNow we will add a question to find out which if any eye tracking studies they have been a part of in the past
  12. Click the button to create a new question
    This brings up the Edit Question dialog.  From here we could edit the question caption and set the text of the question
  13. Type “Have you participated in any eye tracking studies in the past?  If so please describe the studies you have participated in.” into the Question Text area
  14. Click OK
  15. Click the button to allow for a free response area, so the subject can describe past eye tracking studies.
  16. Click the button to add an available response
    This will bring up the Edit Answer dialog, where we can type the possible answer to the selected question
  17. Type “No” into the answer text area
  18. Click OK
    Continue adding any desired questions in a similar fashion.
  19. Type a descriptive questionnaire name into the Name text box at the bottom of the New Questionnaire dialog
  20. Click OK
    This will close the New Questionnaire Wizard and take you back to GazeTracker, but you still need to save the questionnaire.  You can always tell if there is something that needs to be saved by the * in the title bar
  21. Click the button to save your newly created questionnaire
    This will bring up the Save Questionnaires dialog window.
  22. Type a descriptive name into the Name text area
  23. Click OK

Your questionnaire has now been saved.

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How do I add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar / How do I get quick access to commonly used commands

The Quick Access Toolbar is the space just to the right of the application button that is highlighted in red.  The major advantage of the Quick Access Toolbar is that it is always available, no matter which tab you are on in the ribbon.  Any command from the ribbon can be pinned to the quick access toolbar.  We recommend pinning commonly used commands for quick access.  In this tutorial we will cover pinning the Record, Back and Forward buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar.

  1. Double click the “Demo” experiment under Image Experiments
    This will bring up the ribbon
  2. Click on the Home tab
  3. Right click on the Record button and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar
    You should now see the Record button available on the Quick Access Toolbar

  4. Repeat step 3 for the Back and Forward buttons

Your quick access toolbar should now look like which means that the record, back and forward buttons will always be available to you no matter which tab the ribbon is on.

Note: To remove a button from the quick access toolbar right click on the button you wish to remove and select Remove from Quick Access Toolbar

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Analyze multiple subjects

GazeTracker offers a variety of options for analyzing data across multiple subjects.  In this tutorial we will cover exporting the data into Microsoft Excel.

  1. Double click the “Demo” experiment under Image Experiments
  2. Click on the Analysis tab
  3. Click the button
    This will bring up the Selection of Data Type dialog that allows you to setup the type of multiple user analysis.  It is broken up into two main sections Analysis Display Type, which allows you to select if a visualization or data export is done and data to analyze, where you set the type of data to analyze
  4. Make sure Excel Data Chart is selected
    Note: Time Data is the actual gaze data itself, along with how it relates to the LookZones.  The Entrance Data is just the times when the subject(s) entered LookZones and the Fixation Data is similar to time data, but it uses fixations instead of individual gaze data.Warning: Excel is required to be installed on the machine to be able to export to Excel.
  5. Select Time Data
  6. Click Next
    This will bring up the Measures for Time Data dialog box.  Each Data Type will have its own options dialog.  In this tutorial, we will only cover Time Data; for more information, see the Multiple Subject Wizard section of the GazeTracker Manual.
  7. Select Average time per LookZone
  8. Click Next
    You should now see the Data Output Options dialog which is where you define how to combine the data for multiple users
  9. Select Combine data from different subjects
  10. Click Next
    This will bring up the Database Selection dialog, which allows you to include recordings from additional databases, so that you can combine recordings from multiple recording systems
  11. We do not need to include additional databases, so click Next
    The Slide Selection dialog will now come up. This is the dialog where you select which slides you care about
  12. We are only interested in the data slides, and not the Blank Slides, so select each stimulus slides
  13. Click Next
    This will bring up the LookZone Selection dialog which is where you select which LookZones to include in the data export.  Selecting the slide level will select all LookZones under that slide, selecting a LookZone Group will select all LookZones under that group
  14. Click the Select All button to select all LookZones
  15. Click Next
    This will bring up the Subject Selection dialog that will allow you to select the subjects to include in the analysis
  16. Click the Select All button to select all subjects
  17. Click Next
    You will now see the Summary Page dialog, which outlines what will be included in the data output.  The LookZones section will remain blank, until you select a slide
  18. Click Finish

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Record data over dynamic webpages

With the proliferation of technologies such as AJAX, Flash and Silverlight websites are becoming more and more dynamic.  This can present a problem when recording data over websites, because GazeTracker gets the webpage information on load, and has no way to determine when the page changes without a page change.

On top of that, GazeTracker tracks URL information during a recording and then reloads that same URL during analysis.  This can cause consistency problems for pages that change on each page load or change over time. For instance, news sites that costantly change their stories and pages with rotating ads can create a problem because the gaze data was potentially recorded on a different version of the page than the one that is available when you do the data analysis.

Generally, web page element size and locations are consistent between page loads, so these problems generally do not invalidate, or even affect, LookZone information.  What is affected is the playback, because the page content is likely to have changed between recording and analysis.

With GazeTracker, you have two primary options to deal with a dynamic page. If your content is simply changing between loads you can download the pages to the stimulus computer and present them locally, therefore ensuring that the page will remain the same between loads.  If your page has elements that change size and location during viewing via technologies like AJAX, Flash or Silverlight, saving the page locally will not normally resolve the problem.  Whether or not you decide to save the page locally, we recommend configuring GazeTracker to take screen recordings as well.  This tutorial will cover setting up an application experiment that also captures screen data.

  1. Right click on Application/Web Experiments group in the Experiment Explorer
  2. Click New Experiment…
    This will bring up the Application Analysis Setup Wizard dialog
  3. Click Next
    This will progress the wizard to the Experiment step.  This step of the wizard is where you setup the majority of the options.  In this tutorial we will not be changing or explaining any of the options beyond screen recording, see the GazeTracker Manual for more detailed information on each option.
  4. Place a check in the box next to Perform screen capture. Optionally you may wish to also record microphone data during a recording. To do so check the Synchronize sound option.
  5. Click the Next button
    The default is to record all processes, so the wizard will skip the Processes step and go directly to the Summary.  On this page you see that Perform screen capture: is set to Enabled
  6. Click Finish
    You should now have a GazeTracker Notice informing you that your experiment has not been saved and asking if you wish to do so now
  7. Click the Yes button
    This will bring up the Save Data dialog
  8. Enter a descriptive name into the Name text box
  9. Click OK

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Specify what causes GT to advance the stimulus

When using GazeTracker to present stimuli, be them images or videos, the experiment designer can define a variety of ways to advance from one stimulus to the next.  This is not relevant to Application/Web Experiments because the subject, rather than GazeTracker, initiates the change in the stimulus. In these scenarios the user directly interacts with the application or website, and GazeTracker recognizes and records those changes.

In this tutorial we will use a scenario where we want the user to press p for a positive or n for a negative response to the stimulus.  We also need to setup a way for the experiment administrator to be able to advance the slide, which will be done by pressing the left mouse button on a wireless mouse.

  1. Right click on Image Experiments
  2. Click New Experiment…
    This will bring up the Slide Show Wizard that will walk you through creating an image experiment
  3. Click Next
    This will move the wizard to the Intro/Buffer Slides page, which is where you would setup a blank first slide or a blank slide between slides.  This is generally used to normalize the pupil size as well as to hide the stimulus from the subject before the experiment begins.  For this tutorial we are going leave this as the default, see the GazeTracker manual for additional information
  4. Click Next
    This will move the wizard to the Image Slides page, which is where you specify the image stimulus that will be shown, along with the ordering that it will be shown
  5. Click Add
    This will bring up the Select Slides dialog that allows you to select image files to be added to the experiment.

  6. Once you have selected an image or multiple images to add to your experiment click Open
    You should see the stimulus you selected is in the list on the Image Slides page
  7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to add all desired stimulus
  8. Click Next
    This will move the wizard to the Sound Synchronization page, which is where you would setup the experiment to save sound from the microphone during a recording session.  For this tutorial we are not going to change the defaults.  See the GazeTracker manual for more information on sound synchronization
  9. Click Next
    This will move the wizard to the Advancement Mode page, which is where we will set up the different actions that cause the stimulus to advance.  From here we have three options:

    1. Advance slide by pressing a key or a mouse button: this option advances to the next stimulus slide when a predefined keyboard button or mouse click is received by GazeTracker.  We will cover this option in depth below
    2. Advance slide after a specified time period: This simply advances after a defined time period
    3. Press escape to return to the previously displayed slide: This allows tells GazeTracker to go backwards to the previous slide when it sees that escape was pressed

    We will cover setting up two keyboard keys and mouse click to advance the slide

  10. Click the Choose… button under Advance slide by pressing a key or mouse button
    This will bring up the Key Selection dialog that allows you define which keys and mouse clicks advance the slide.  In this scenario we are going to be removing the space bar and adding n, p and left mouse click

  11. Click Space to highlight it in blue
  12. Click the Remove button to remove Space
  13. Click Add
    This will open the Choose Key dialog which will record the next keyboard key or mouse click and add it to the list
  14. Press the “P” key on your keyboard
    You will now see “P” in the key list
  15. Repeat steps 13 and 14 to add “N” to the list
    Now we need to add the left mouse button to the list to do this
  16. Click Add…
    This opens the Choose Key dialog
  17. Left click the center of the Choose Key dialog
    “Left Mouse Button” should now be added to the list

  18. Click OK
    This will take you back to the Advancement Mode page in the Slide Show Wizard, you should now have Advance slide by pressing a key or mouse button selected and “(Too many to list)” in the Selection area
  19. Finish creating and save your experiment

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Record over only one window in Application Analysis

In Application Analysis, GazeTracker will, by default, recognize and record every window or application the user interacts with including the desktop.   Many studies focus on the user’s interaction with one particular application; any other information is not useful and is simply noise that must be filtered.  This tutorial will go through the simple process of setting up an experiment in GazeTracker that will ignore all applications other than Solitaire.

  1. Right click on Application/Web Experiments under the Experiment Explorer
  2. Click New Experiment…
    This will bring up the Application Analysis Setup Wizard on the Welcome pane.  This wizard will walk you through creating an application analysis experiment
  3. Click Next
    This will advance to the Experiment pane.  This is where you will define the majority of the experiment options and those options will guide the rest of the wizard.  The Automatically add new windows to analysis is checked by default and tells GazeTracker to automatically add any window the subject interacts with.  In this tutorial we only want GazeTracker to record eye movements in Solitaire, so we will uncheck it.  We could also simply uncheck Track desktop window which would have GazeTracker track all programs except the Windows desktop
  4. Uncheck Automatically add new windows to analysis
  5. Click Next
    The wizard will see that you don’t want to track all windows, so it will advance to the Processes pane, which will allow you to select the programs to track. This pane will list all running programs that you can choose directly or allow you to browse for an executable to track.  If you had told GazeTracker to automatically add new windows it would have skipped this step of the wizard
  6. Run “Solitaire” by clicking the windows Start button then All Programs/Games and choosing Solitaire
  7. Click the Refresh List button on the Processes pane so GazeTracker will recognize that Solitaire is now running
    You should now see “Sol.Exe – Solitaire” in the process list

  8. Click Sol.Exe – Solitaire
    Warning: By default Track all instances of selected processes is selected.  This is generally the option you want, because it will work across multiple recording sessions.  Track only the current instance of selected processes will only track the current instance of the application while it continues to run.  For instance, if you disable this option in our Solitaire example and the user closes Sol.Exe, GazeTracker will not track a newly opened Sol.Exe without you needing to modify the experiment.
  9. Leave Track all instances of selected processes check and Click Next
  10. Click Finish
  11. Save your newly created experiment

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Add LookZones to an Application in Application Analysis

Adding LookZones in Application Analysi is done in the exact way as in Image or Video Mode.  When you click the button from the LookZones tab on the ribbon, GazeTracker will minimize and allow you to draw your LookZones directly on applications in wWindows.  Any LookZones drawn in Microsoft Internet Explorer will scroll compensate, meaning that they are tied to the location on the page, not the location on the screen and will move with the content as the user scrolls a webpage.  LookZones on other applications are tied to the window on which they were drawn, so if the subject moves the window around the screen they will move with the window but will not change based on the size or content of the window.

If you tell GazeTracker to only track specific applications, then you will only be able to add LookZones over those applications.

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Create a new experiment database

We recommend creating a new database on a regular schedule to prevent data corruption.  Creating a new database is an easy process:

  1. Right click on the experiment type in the Experiment Explorer pane
  2. Click Change Database…
    This will open the Database Management dialog which is where you interact with your database
  3. Click the Create… button
    This will bring up the Create new [Bmp] mode database file dialog, which is where you give the name and path for the new database
  4. Select where you want to save your new database and give it a relevant name
  5. Click Save
    This will bring you back to the Database Management dialog
  6. Click OK
    You may see a GazeTracker Notice asking if you want to include the demo data in the newly created database.  There is a checkbox indicating to not ask this question again, if you click that it will always use this answer, and if you had checked it in the past, you won’t even see the notice
  7. Click Yes or No depending on whether you want demo data in your newly created database

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What are intro and buffer slides used for?