Blickshift Analytics

• Made the Remote Computation Node robust against packet loss. This requires changes in the remote implementation. The changes have already been implemented in the supplied Python implementation
• Added –ffmpeg and –directshow command line parameters to start Blickshift Analytics with different video backends
• Added an FAQ to the manual, currently only addressing video issues
• If a node is still running, the project can be saved now, if the running node is removed from the project. This is meant as a failsafe measure so that projects can still be saved in unforeseen consequences
• Stopping the computation of Value Search and Merge & Resample node works quicker now

• Added experimental support for xml import. Currently only *.gpx and Garmin *.tcx files are considered as supported file formats, though others might work as well
• Columns that are detected as a possible unix timestamp are now converted to DateTime format by default in the importer
• Interpolation between polygons in the Dynamic AOI Editor is now improved a lot, especially when interpolating between polygons with different vertex counts
• Fixed an error that occurred when applying object tracking to polygons with different vertex counts in the Dynamic AOI Editor
• Fixed a crash in the Dynamic AOI Editor that occurred when switching the AOI tool while drawing a quad or polygon
• Fixed a crash that could occur when changing pens or brushes of a visualization in a case with many scenarios/participants
• Fixed a problem in the Dynamic AOI Editor where switching between interpolation and object tracking of the succeeding range of an AOI Frame would not trigger re-computation of the output
• Fixed an error in the Gap Fill Node that appeared when changing columns
• Fixed a bug in the file preview of the importer that happened when a column consisted of only a field delimiter
• Fixed an error in the remote implementation example that would occur when an empty data set was delivered, because the remote computation node’s input was empty

• The topmost column selection in the settings panel is now displayed with wide ComboBoxes for better readability
• Significantly improved the display of multi-value parameters in the settings panel
• Importing AOIs into the Dynamic AOI Editor now works correctly for multiple scenarios/participants at once
• Synchronization of cursor positions now works correctly also in all cases where the Dynamic AOI Editor is involved
• The display of AOIs in the time area is now updated correctly when the last existing AOI is deleted
• Scenarios for surface data are now set correctly when importing Pupil Labs data and selecting one of the subfolders of the exports directory directly
• Fixed an issue with the Pupil Labs Importer. The Surface Names parameter of the Pupil Labs Transformations Node is now set correctly
• Fixed a crash when importing specific Pupil Labs Data

• Added Remote Computation Node to the Ultimate edition of Blickshift Analytics. This allows integrating arbitrary computations in any programming language at any point in the analysis. A support library in python as well as simple example code is provided
• Added Data Overview to the Project Manager, which gives an overview of which data nodes contain data for which scenario/participant combination
• The importer now allows associating scenarios/participants via time, if data already exists, assuming that both the existing data and the data to be imported contains absolute time stamps
• The importer now allows selecting existing node/scenario/participant names from a dropdown menu, if “fixed” is selected also for media files
• Significantly improved the performance of the time control of the Dynamic AOI Editor, especially if many user-edited frames exist
• Improved performance of video preprocessing and AOI tracking in Dynamic AOI Editor
• Improved GUI performance of projects with a lot of scenarios/participants. Settings that are mapped on scenarios/participants are not hidden now, if many are present, instead they are relegated to a window that opens upon request
• The layout wizard now prioritizes avoiding empty visualization slots
• Gaze Statistics Node: Changed definition of aggregation for averages (see documentation)
• Importing from directory now allows selecting several directories at once
• Importer now directly supports exports from Shimmer’s Consensys Software
• Unix timestamps are now assumed to be UTC on import, and are converted to local DateTime, if “DateTime” is selected as the column data type
• Importer now supports floating point seconds and milliseconds since 1970 as convertible to DateTime
• Fixed a bug in the importer where changing the header definition of a file format did not result in a correct update of the import preview
• Creating a single AOI column from several aoi hit columns now works for some Tobii formats that were not yet supported before
• The labeling node now has selectable markings, even if it is created while another node is still computing
• Fixed errors messages in Gaze Statistics Node when converting between different time formats
• Fixed metadata of columns when computing local coordinates in [Dynamic] AOI Editor
• If the user rejects the detected file formats upon “import from files”, the format is now completely discarded and not used as a base setting for the detailed view. Instead, a clean auto-detect is started
• Fixed a bug that resulted in projects with unavailable nodes not being loaded (e.g. when transferring to a lower-tier edition of Blickshift Analytics). Now the node is missing after the loading operation, but the rest of the project is loaded correctly
• Fixed a problem that resulted in Dynamic AOI Editor requesting the user to change an AOI, without the actual possibility to do so in an error state
• Computation of a heat map is now cancelled correctly for very large data tables

• The importer now allows selecting existing node/scenario/participant names from a dropdown menu, if “fixed” is selected and data already exists in the project
• Improved Importer for Pupil Labs Neon data
• The system time column that can be created from a Pupil Labs core import is now selectable as the default time column
• The system time column created from Pupil Labs core is now correctly converted to local time during daylight savings time period
• Performance improvements to Dynamic AOI Editor, Gaze Statistics and Scan Path Clustering

• The new Marking Combination Node allows combining different markings with set operations and also marking areas between existing markings, e.g. in order to mark areas between specific events
• Improvements to the way the Dynamic AOI Editor allocates and releases the memory it requires
• Added the option to auto-create a system time column when importing Pupil Labs data
• Added progress reporting to several nodes that take some time to compute

• Enabled aggregation of stimulus-based visualizations (heat maps, scan paths), if the stimulus name is read from a column, and the data has been grouped according to that column with a group node.
• Added information about the column type into the columns’ tooltip in the drill down visualization.
• Fixed a bug in the merge and resample node that could occur, if the data on Input 1 had many rows with the same timestamp and “Clamp to Common Time” was activated.
• Fixed a problem with importing world.mp4 files from Pupil Labs recordings.
• Several smaller improvements and bugfixes

• Added support for annotations in the Pupil Labs data
• Fixed a problem that could occur if Pupil Labs fixation data files are empty
• Significantly improved performance of Group Node
• Significantly improved performance of Value Search
• Added possibility to select non-monotonous columns to the Merge&Resample Node
• Fixed an issue that could lead to some clauses of the Value Search not being used in the search under specific circumstances
• Fixed a bug that caused the the “duplicate marking” functionality to not work correctly
• Several smaller improvements and bugfixes

• Pupil Labs support:
  • including surfaces
  • Pupil Labs fixations
  • blink detection
  • eye videos, etc.
• Introduced support for normalized coordinates and different coordinate origins
• Ignoring coordinates is now configurable
• Added metric “GazedAtBy” to Gaze Duration Statistics
• Added an option to aggregate via average for the Time to First Fixation cimputation
• Significantly improved performance on several nodes
• Several smaller improvements and bugfixes

• New features in visualization components
• Optimized Labeling node
• Optimized Column Computation node
• Faster computations in split-markings
• Improved importer
• Many bugfixes and improvements

• Support for portability of projects
• Merge and Resample now supports NaN as a possible default value
• Exporting to a single csv-adherent file is now supported
• Improved backward compatibility for legacy project.
• Improved handling of the grayscale color scheme for scenarios
• Many bugfixes and improvements

• Copy & Paste bug in AOI editor fixed
• Bug during offset change in Merge & Resample node fixed
• Further features added to Merge & Resample node
• Small bugfixes and improvements

• Cumulative update with all improvements and bugfixes
• Optimization of layout wizard
• Optimization of merge node

• Verbesserung des AOI-Editors
• SMI-Dateien mit mehreren Stimuli pro Export-Datei können jetzt importiert werden
• Handbuch überarbeitet
• Allgemeine Bugfixes

• New parameters for Film Strip and Stimulus visualization
• General bug fixes

• Layout wizard is optimized
• Line Graph can now visualize dates and times
• General bug fixes

• Static AOI editor reworked based on user feedback
• Import of columns with dates and times is now possible
• Documentation about workflow exporer reworked

• New chapters to documentation added
• Small improvements
• General bug fixes
• New features in exporter and importer component
• Performance improvements

• Official beta version with advanced AOI editor for static stimuli
• New start screen with project overview
• Project files short cut view added
• Beta nodes added for gap filling, multi value conflation and data merging
• Column quick search added to analysis and visualization panels
• General bug fixes

Im ersten Update des neuen Jahres haben wir uns auf kleine Verbesserungen und allgemeine Bugfixes konzentriert.

• We change to a monthly update cycle
• Introduction of play function in time dependent visualizations
• Individual selection of stimuli in Film Strip visualization
• Chapters Introduction, Value Search and Project Manager in manual have additional information
• Manual is added to download as PDF file
• Small improvements
• General bug fixes

• Blickshift Analytics is installed via a Windows installer program
• Introduction of a data column for stimuli names
• Importer differentiates between time stamps with comma- and decimal seperators
• Improvements of performance for a large number of scenarios and participants
• Performance of Column Computation is optimized
• Optimization of workflow
• Gyro- and accelerometer data from Tobii Pro Lab files can now be analyzed
• Ignored AOIs are drawn as dashed lines in Parallel Scan Path visualization
• Introduction of time units for time columns
• Gaze Duration Statistics works with different time units
• Order of columns can be changed in Drill Down visualization
• Optimization of error list in Column Computation
• Different layouts for time dependent visualizations
• Chapter Concept of manual contains additional information

• First version with labeling node
• Scan Path can visualize splitted data sources
• Optimization of automatic layout function
• Performance of Heat Map improved
• General bug fixes

• Labeling node is in beta phase
• Import performance improved
• General bug fixes

• Heuristics of importer is improved
• Window layout is stored in project files
• Scan Path supports coupled cursors
• Optimization of the user interface for Windows 7