Scene mapping for ETAnalysis. Finds where the scene camera is in the room, so gaze can be analysed against objects without a separate head tracker.
SceneMap is an add-on to ETAnalysis. It uses the eye tracker's own scene camera image to work out where that camera is in the environment, using a technique called SLAM, or simultaneous localisation and mapping.
The practical consequence is that you can analyse gaze against objects in a real space without installing a head tracking system. That mattered in places where motion capture is impractical. Retail aisles were the common case.
Somebody walks the head-mounted scene camera slowly through the same space the participants will move through. That recording becomes the reference file.
You use the master file to specify the objects of interest in the environment, once, rather than per participant.
ETAnalysis tracks where the scene camera is in the environment, and where your marked objects sit in its field of view, frame by frame.
Output can be previewed as gaze points, fixations or heat maps, and fixations are analysed against the areas of interest you defined.
SceneMap still runs and we still support it. But for most research questions, two newer things in the current platform do the same job better.
In ETAnalysis, moving areas of interest track an object through a recording automatically. They ship with every system rather than being an optional module, and they need no master environment file built in advance.
ET3Space resolves gaze into room coordinates on up to 20 real surfaces and objects, using a motion capture system for head position. More work to set up than SceneMap, and considerably more precise.
It depends on the environment and on what you need the number for. Write to us and describe the study. We will tell you which one we would use, including when the answer is neither.
It is supported. If you have a licence and it is not running, or you have data from it you need help with, write to techsupport@ArgusScience.com.
Fixations, saccades, dwell, moving areas of interest, heat maps and group statistics.