Ratcave: A 3D graphics python package for cognitive psychology experiments

Del Grosso, Nicholas A. und Sirota, Anton (2019): Ratcave: A 3D graphics python package for cognitive psychology experiments. In: Behavior Research Methods, Bd. 51: S. 2085-2093

Abstract

We present here a free, open source Python 3D graphics library called Ratcave that extends existing Python psychology stimulus software by allowing scientists to load, display, and transform 3D stimuli created in 3D modeling software. This library makes 3D programming intuitive to new users by providing 3D graphics engine concepts (Mesh, Scene, Light, and Camera classes) that can be manipulated using an interface similar to existing 2D stimulus libraries. In addition, the use of modern OpenGL constructs by Ratcave helps scientists create fast, hardware-accelerated dynamic stimuli using the same intuitive high-level, lightweight interface. Because Ratcave supplements, rather than replaces, existing Python stimulus libraries, scientists can continue to use their preferred libraries by simply adding Ratcave graphics to their existing experiments. We hope this tool will be useful both as a stimulus library and as an example of how tightly-focused libraries can add quality to the existing scientific open-source software ecosystem.

Cognitive psychology and neuroscience experiments use software that presents stimuli to a subject, detects subject responses, and logs events for future analysis, all with high temporal accuracy. An ever-expanding list of other features included in this software are compatibility with third-party hardware devices (e.g. button boxes, amplifiers, eye tracking systems), support for custom experimental designs, and online analysis for adaptive stimulus sequences; these tools are available both as self-enclosed software solutions (e.g. Neurobs Presentation, BCI2000, SuperLab, E-Prime) and open-source libraries (e.g. Psychtoolbox by Brainard, 1997; PsychoPy by Peirce, 2007; VisionEgg by Straw, 2008; Expyriment by Krause & Lindemann, 2013; for a review of psychophysics libraries, see Kötter, 2009). However, these popular libraries are missing 3D graphics support, needed for a wide range visual psychophysics experiments, such as 3D mental rotation or object recognition, virtual reality in spatial navigation research, to name a few. While 3D graphics libraries do exist in Python (e.g. Panda3D, PyOgre, Vizard) and other languages (e.g. Unity3D, Unreal Engine), the stimuli, logging, and hardware support of all of these libraries are designed to work with the windows and event loops they supply, making it difficult to integrate 3D graphics functionality into different psychophysics libraries without (sometimes-extensive) modification (e.g. to mix PsychoPy’s DotStim and Expyriment’s video support). In practice, this means that each software suite is relatively self-contained; researchers who require 3D stimuli, for example, have to, thereby, resort to use or develop different experiment control software when employing 3D visual stimuli (essentially, building interface to 3D game engines), losing out on the rich features that exist in the psychophysics software ecosystem developed for the 2D graphics. Extension libraries help reduce these feature-tradeoff decisions; for example, OpenSesame, a Python-powered GUI (Mathôt & Theeuwes, 2012), uses PsychoPy, Expyriment, and PyGame as “backends” to its experiment-building graphical interface, thereby supporting all researchers who rely on those libraries. A similar extension approach could be used for 3D stimuli--not to compete with the existing 3D frameworks on a feature-by-feature basis, but to simply add simple-to-use 3D stimulus presentation and manipulation support to the feature list of existing 2D stimulus libraries in Python.

In this paper, we present an open-source, cross-platform Python library called Ratcave that adds 3D stimulus support to all OpenGL-based 2D Python stimulus libraries, including VisionEgg, Psychopy, Pyglet, and PyGame. We review the core features of Ratcave (https://github.com/ratcave/ratcave) and highlight key connections of its interface to underlying graphics programming strategies (a thorough manual, complete with API guide and tutorials for first-time users can be found at https://ratcave.readthedocs.org). This library, which derives its name from our high-speed RatcaveVR experimental setup (Del Grosso, Graboski, Chen, Hernández, & Sirota, 2017), is designed to increase accessibility of 3D graphics programming to the existing ecosystem of psychology software for Python.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Medizin > Lehrstuhl für Kognition und Neuronale Plastizität
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie ; 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• ISSN: 1554-351X
• Sprache: Englisch