Install Pupilio
Currently, all eye trackers shipped with Pupilio are pre-configured with the necessary Pupilio Python packages. If we need to upgrade this package, please enter the following command in the command prompt or PowerShell window:
pip install -U pupilio
Once Pupilio is installed, enter the following command in the command prompt or PowerShell window:
python
>>> import pupilio
If we see a window displaying pupilio version: ***, the installation was successful.
Starting Eye Tracking
Our calibration user interface supports both Pygame and PsychoPy, which means we need to initialize a window and pass it to the Pupilio instance. For simplicity and convenience, let’s start with Pygame:
# load PyGame library
import pygame
from pygame.locals import FULLSCREEN, HWSURFACE
# initialize PyGame
pygame.init()
# define the scree size
scn_width, scn_height = (1920, 1080)
# set a fullscreen mode with the above size
win = pygame.display.set_mode((scn_width, scn_height), FULLSCREEN|HWSURFACE)
Now that we have created a standard full-screen Pygame window, the next step is to call the eye tracker and perform the calibration：
# load Pupilio library
from pupilio import Pupilio
from psychopy import visual, core, event
# use the Psychopy library for graphics, first open a full screen window
scn_width, scn_height = (1920, 1080)
win = visual.Window((scn_width, scn_height), fullscr=True, units='pix')
# instantiate a connection to the tracker
pupil_io = Pupilio()
# create a task session, and set a session name
# The session name must contain only letters,
# digits or underscores without any special characters.
pupil_io.create_session(session_name="quick_start")
# calibration and validation (recommended)
# set 'validate' to True if we would like to verify the calibration results
# screen is an instance of pygame surface or psychopy.visual.Window
pupil_io.calibration_draw(validate=True, screen=win)
Next, with the calibration and validation code already implemented, we can begin collecting eye-tracking data using the following code:
# start retrieving gaze
pupil_io.start_sampling()
Assuming we have collected data for 20 seconds, we can save the collected data to a file using the following code:
# hang the main thread for 5 seconds by game
# eye tracking sampling are running on the background thread
pygame.time.wait(5 * 1000)
# stop eye tracking sampling
pupil_io.stop_sampling()
# sleep for 100 ms to capture ending samples
pygame.time.wait(100)
# save eye movement data
pupil_io.save_data("eye_movement.csv")
Finally, we need to clean up the resources used by Pupilio and close Pygame. Here’s how we can do it:
# release the tracker instance
# clean up Pupilio resources
pupil_io.release()
# quit pygame
pygame.quit()
Pupilio Workflow
Here is a flowchart illustrating the general workflow of Pupilio:
