edfImport

This library provides a simple interface to import contents of the EDF files generated by Eyelink eye-tracker into Matlab. If you don't know what are EDF files generated by Eyelink, you don't need this library (i.e., there are other file types that also have EDF extension). It imports events and/or samples, automatically parsing them into separate trials. In addition to that, several post-processing functions can be used to extract selected events (fixations, saccades and blinks), variable values (TRIAL_VAR events) and microsaccades.

If you find any bugs, please email me at [email protected].

Prerequisite

This library relies on EDF API provided by SR-Research on their support web-site www.sr-support.com. This library was tested to work with version 2.5 of EDF API.

For details on structures and fields please consult EDF API manual. Note, that there are some discrepancies between the manual and the actual library implementation. For example in the FSAMPLE structure the manual lists status field. However, it is not defined in the library itself.

Another important note: although MATLAB creates any value as double by default, it is very stringent on how it handles the types when they are defined. So, for example, if you will subtract time fields you will never get a negative value, as they are defined as unsigned. To override it just use double(variable) to convert it to double.

Installation

Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/alexander-pastukhov/edfImport.git or download the ZIP and extract it into the folder of your liking. Add this folder to Matlab's path.

Compilation

Precompiled mex files (32- and 64-bit Windows Matlab only) are included but you can compile them yourself by running edfCompile.m script. You might need to setup the compiler for your system first: Run mex -setup and follow the instructions. Please check paths to include files (*.h files) and libraries (*.dll files for Windows, *.lib files for OS X) that are specified in the edfCompile.m file. Default locations are as follows:

For Windows 32 bit (typical installation):

• includes: c:\Program Files (x86)\SR Research\EyeLink\Includes\eyelink\ (formerly in C:\Program Files\SR Research\EyeLink\EDF_Access_API\Example)
• library: c:\Program Files (x86)\SR Research\EyeLink\libs\ (formerly in C:\Program Files\SR Research\EyeLink\EDF_Access_API\lib\win32)

For Windows 64 bit (typical installation):

• includes: c:\Program Files (x86)\SR Research\EyeLink\Includes\eyelink\ (formerly in C:\Program Files (x86)\SR Research\EyeLink\EDF_Access_API\Example)
• library: c:\Program Files (x86)\SR Research\EyeLink\libs\x64\ (formerly in C:\Program Files (x86)\SR Research\EyeLink\EDF_Access_API\lib\win32)

For Mac OS X (typical installtion):

• includes: /Library/Frameworks/edfapi.framework/Headers/
• library: /Library/Frameworks/edfapi.framework/

I have never tested it on Linux, but compilation should be straightforward. Write me if you need help with it.

How to use

To import data from the EDF file call edfImport function, e.g.:

Trials= edfImport('test.edf', [1 1 1], '');

This will import all events and samples into vector Trials structures (see section Trial structure for details). Next you can call edfExtractInterestingEvents to extract fixations, saccades, blinks and button presses recorded by the eye tracker; edfExtractMicrosaccades to extract microsaccades based on raw eyes positions; edfExtractVariable for variables and values stored during recording.

Known limitations

While edfExtractVariables function can automatically extract variable values, it assumes that they were recorded using TRIAL_VAR message. Combination of TRIAL_VAR_LABELS and TRIALS_VAR_DATA currently is not supported.

License

Code released under the MIT license.

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Reference

Functions

edfImport

Imports events and/or samples from the EDF file.

Syntax

Trials= edfImport(Filename, Options, SampleFields, TrimSamplesToCorrectNumber)
	Trials= edfImport(Filename, Options, SampleFields)
	Trials= edfImport(Filename, Options)
	Trials= edfImport(Filename)
	[Trials, Preamble]= edfImport(...)

Description

Trials= edfImport(Filename, Options, SampleFields, TrimSamplesToCorrectNumber)

imports events and/or samples from the file Filename. Options argument is a vector with following flags [consistency load_events load_samples], where

consistency:

• 0: no consistency check
• 1: check consistency and report (default)
• 2: check consistency and fix

load_events:

• 0: do not load events
• 1: load events (default)

load_samples"

• 0: do not load samples (default)
• 1: load samples

SampleFields is a space-separated list of FSAMPLE structure fields to be imported. If load_samples is 0 this argument is ignored. To import all fields omit SampleField argument or pass an empty string.

TrimSamplesToCorrectNumber (default: true): truncates samples to the real number of imported samples. Arrays may be longer as they are pre-allocated by computing the number of samples based on recording duration and sampling frequency. Typically, you may get one (last) empty sample.

Trials= edfImport(Filename, Options)

if load_samples is 1, imports all FSAMPLE fields.

Trials= edfImport(Filename)

uses default Options= [1 1 0].

[Trials, Preamble]= edfImport(...)

additionally imports Preamble of the EDF file (see EDF API manual for details).

Examples

Importing events only from the file test.edf:

	Trials= edfImport('test.edf');

Importing everything:

	Trials= edfImport('test.edf', [1 1 1]);

Importing selected \textit{FSAMPLE} fields

	Trials= edfImport('test.edf', [1 1 1], 'time gx gy rx ry');

edfExtractInterestingEvents

Extract fixations, saccades, blinks and button presses from events and places them into new fields within Trial structure.

Syntax

Trials= edfExtractInterestingEvents(Trials)

Description Extracts fixations, saccades and blinks from events and places them, respectively, into Fixations, Saccades, and Blinks field in the updated Trials structure. New substructures contain the following fields (see details in EDF API manual):

• Fixations: eye, sttime, entime, time, gavx, gavy, PixInDegX, PixInDegY
• Saccades: eye, sttime, entime, time, gstx, gsty, genx, geny, avel, pvel, ampl, phi, PixInDegX, PixInDegY
• Blinks: eye, sttime, entime, time
• Buttons: ID, Pressed, time

edfExtractMicrosaccades

Extracts microsaccades from the raw eye positions data using algorithm described in Engbert & Kliegl (2003). If you use this function, please cite Engbert, R. and R. Kliegl (2003). "Microsaccades uncover the orientation of covert attention." Vision Res 43(9): 1035-45.

Syntax

Trials= edfExtractMicrosaccadesForTrial(Trials,VelocityBraketMS, VelocityThreshold, MinimalDurationMS, MinimalSeparationMS)

Trials= edfExtractMicrosaccadesForTrial(Trials)

Description Extracts microsaccades using raw eye positions. This requires that Samples field exists (i.e., samples were imported) and the following fields are present: time, gx, gy. Refresh rate of the camera for recording is taken from Trials().Header.rec.sample_rate field.

Additional options and their default values (used if the option is omitted), for more details consult Engbert & Kliegl (2003).

• VelocityBraketMS: time span around current sample with which to compute the velocity in milliseconds. Default: 20 ms.
• VelocityThreshold: velocity threshold for microsaccade detection in medians. Default: 6.
• MinimalDurationMS: minimal microsaccade duration in milliseconds. Default: 12 ms.
• MinimalSeparationMS: minimal time in milliseconds allowed between two microsaccades, otherwise they are merged. Default: 12 ms.

For information on the appended Microsaccades structure see Trial structure.

edfExtractVariables

Extracts variables and their values from TRIAL_VAR messages. Note TRIAL_VAR_LABELS and TRIAL_VAR_DATA are currently not supported.

Syntax

Trials= edfExtractVariables(Trials)

Description Extracts variables and their values from TRIAL_VAR messages (in Events structure) and stores them into a new field Variables with each variable being a new subfield. During recording variables can be saved using either space-separated format TRIAL_VAR VarName VarValue or using a MATLAB-compatible syntax TRIAL_VAR VarName=VarValue. In the latter case you can use any MATLAB-legal expression for VarValue.

edfExtractKeyEventsTiming

Extracts time of the events recorded with KEY_EVENT message.

Syntax

Trials= edfExtractKeyEventsTiming(Trials)

Description This is a non-standard function. In order to have precise timing of experimental events in eye-tracker time units, I record them using eyemsg_printf("KEY_EVENT SomeImportantEvent"). This way I know exactly when it happened and later use this function to extract the timing. Information is stored in the new field KeyEvents with each event name being a new subfield and timing in eye tracker time units stored as a value. For example KEY_EVENT MaskOnset becomes Trials(iT).KeyEvents.MaskOnset= T; (there T is the time of the event). Note, you can use event codes like KEY_EVENT FrameOnset(1) and KEY_EVENT FrameOnset(2), in this case you will get a two element vector KeyEvents.FrameOnset= [T1 T2].

edfCheckFixationStability

Verifies that all fixations happen within a safe radius around the fixation mark.

Syntax

Trials= edfCheckFixationStability(Trials, Fixation, ValidRadius)

Description

Checks fixations for each trial to verify that they are within a safe radius away from the fixation. Fixation is a 2 element vector for the fixation position on the screen in pixels: [x, y]. ValidRadius is a maximum tolerable deviation from fixation in degress of visual angle. Each trial is appended with a new Valid field, which is 1 if trial is valid and 0, if some fixations fell outside of the safe radius.

Trial structure

Each trial structure could contain following fields/substructures. Which fields are available depends on what kind of processing was done.

• Header: this is a TRIAL structure, for details see EDF API manual.
• Events: this is a FEVENT structure, for details see EDF API manual.
• Samples: this is a FSAMPLE structure with an additional field RealNumberOfSamples, for details see EDF API manual. Note, only fields which you chose to import, when calling edfImport, will be present plus RealNumberOfSamples. Latter contains real number of imported samples and is used by edfImport function to truncate fields to eliminate empty samples (see edfImport for details).
• StartTime: time of the first sample recording (the trial itself starts earlier). Added by edfExtractInterestingEvents function.
• Fixations: information about all fixations, as detected by the eye tracker. Fields indclude: eye, sttime, entime, time, gavx, gavy, PixInDegX, PixInDegY. Added by edfExtractInterestingEvents function.
• Saccades: information about all saccades, as detected by the eye tracker. Fields indclude: eye, sttime, entime, time, gstx, gsty, genx, geny, avel, pvel, ampl, phi, PixInDegX, PixInDegY. Added by edfExtractInterestingEvents.
• Blinks: information about all blinks, as detected by the eye tracker. Fields include: eye, sttime, entime, time. Added by edfExtractInterestingEvents..
• Microsaccades: information about extracted microsaccades. Added by edfExtractMicrosaccades. Subfields:
  • Start: index of the microsaccade start in Samples.
  • End: index of the microsaccade end in Samples.
  • StartTime: start of the microsaccade in eye tracker time.
  • EndTime: end of the microsaccade in eye tracker time.
  • DeltaX: horizontal component.
  • DeltaY: vertical component.
  • vPeak:} peak velocity.
  • Amplitude: amplitude (traveled distance).
  • Phi: direction in degrees (not radians).
  • Duration: in milliseconds.
• Variables: contains all variables and values stored during recording with TRIAL\_VAR eye tracker command. Added by edfExtractVariables function.
• KeyEvents: contains names (as fields) and time (as values) of key events recorded with a custom KEY_EVENT message. Added by edfExtractKeyEventsTiming function.
• Valid: generated by edfCheckFixationStability. 1 if trial is valid, 0 if some fixation occured outside of the safe radius.

Service functions

edfMexImport

Imports information from EDF file. Don't call it directly, please use wrapper edfImport which has safety checks for passed arguments.

edfSelectSampleFields

Converts list of space-separated names of FSAMPLE structure fields into a boolean array of flags, later passed to edfImport function. Used by edfImport.

edfCompile

OS-sensitive script for library compilation. Modify it to suite your environment.

edfFindTrialRecordingStart

Locates beginning of samples recording, used by edfExtractMicrosaccades.