GazePlotter
Documentation Chapters

Tobii Pro Lab Synchronization

To integrate gaze arrays natively exported from Tobii Pro Lab architecture directly into GazePlotter, the raw data structures must be serialized into the .tsv file extension protocol.

Pre-Processing Workflow (Tobii Pro Lab)

Execute these technical steps securely within the native Tobii interface prior to importing.

  1. Locate Tool: Engage the overarching Analyze tab within the primary header nav.
  2. Access Module: Execute the Data Export sub-module command.

Configuring Parameters

  1. Data Architecture: Within the right-hand properties panel, explicitly force the Format directive strictly to Single standard file (.tsv).
  2. Column Constraints: To optimize internal ingestion speeds and prevent parsing footprint bloat, include these core metrics. Spatial columns are optional:
System Target Column Name
Recording timestamp
Participant name
Recording name
Presented Stimulus name
Eye movement type
Eye movement type index
Event
Event value
AOI hit

Optional spatial columns:

Spatial Target Column Name
Mapped fixation X
Mapped fixation Y
Fixation point X
Fixation point Y

Execution

  1. Execution: Fire the Export button to serialize the finalized .tsv to local storage.

Ingestion Workflow (GazePlotter)

Once safely serialized, the array can be imported seamlessly into the spatial canvas.

Upload Routine

  1. Target Area: Ensure you are occupying the main GazePlotter GUI dashboard.
  2. Command Interaction: Depress the primary Upload data action button.
  3. Selection Details: Utilize your local OS modal window to target the recently configured .tsv file generated directly from the Tobii system.

Stimulus Parsing Prompt

Once the structural .tsv is successfully received, the GazePlotter engine will actively prompt you to define how it should computationally extract stimulus delineations. Select the explicit methodology that matches your hardware and experimental architecture:

  • Media Column: Instructs the engine to extract default stimulus strings directly from the Presented Stimulus name column. Used exclusively for classic Screen-based experiments.
  • Interval Events: Instructs the engine to isolate stimuli computationally based upon explicit IntervalStart and IntervalEnd markers nested within the Event column. Used predominantly for mobile/wearable Glasses experiments.
  • Web Stimulus Events: Instructs the engine to isolate individual dynamic URLs as independent stimuli matrices.
  • Custom Markers: Allows you to explicitly define and input your own custom delimiter string markers (e.g., _start;_end) to force temporal stimulus boxing.

Spatial Coordinate Parsing

When Tobii coordinate columns are available, GazePlotter stores a segment-level spatial coordinate for fixation segments.

Priority order:

  1. Mapped fixation X + Mapped fixation Y (preferred)
  2. Fixation point X + Fixation point Y (fallback)
  3. If neither complete pair is available, no spatial coordinate is stored for that segment

Notes:

  • Both X and Y are required as a pair.
  • If only one value is present, the row is treated as no spatial data.
  • The first valid coordinate pair within a segment is used for that segment.

Data Reference Standard

Engineers or technicians seeking properly formatted source architecture tests can clone standardized sample files safely from our Open Science repositories.