>Psychtoolbox>PsychTests

PsychPortAudioTimingTest([exactstart=1][, deviceid=-1][, latbias=0][, waitframes][, useDPixx=0][, triggerLevel=0.01][, reqlatencyclass=2])

Test script for sound onset timing reliability and sound onset
latency of the PsychPortAudio sound driver.

This script configures the driver for low latency and high timing
precision, then executes ten trials where it tries to emit a beep sound,
starting in exact sync to a black-white transition on the display.

You’ll need measurement equipment to use this: A photo-diode attached to
the top-left corner of your CRT display, a microphone attached to your
speakers, some oszillograph to record and measure the signals from the
diode and microphone.

Some parameters may need tweaking. Make sure you got a setup as described
in ‘help InitializePsychSound’ for best results.

Optional parameters:

‘exactstart’ = 0 – Start immediately, measure absolute latency.
= 1 – Test accuracy of scheduled sound onset. (Default)

‘deviceid’ = -1 – Auto-select optimal device (Default).
>=0 – Select specified output device. See
PsychPortAudio(‘GetDevices’) for a list of devices.

‘latbias’ = Hardware inherent latency bias. To be determined by
measurement - allows to PA to correct for it if provided.
Unit is seconds. Defaults to zero.

‘waitframes’ = Time to wait (in video refresh intervals) before emitting beep + flash.
Defaults to a typically safe value if omitted.

‘useDPixx’ = 1 – Use DataPixx device to automatically measure the true
audio onset time wrt. to visual stimulus onset.
0 – Don’t use DataPixx. This is the default.

‘triggerLevel’ = Sound signal amplitude for DataPixx to detect sound
onset. Defaults to 0.01 = 1% of max amplitude if
exactstart == 0, otherwise it is auto-detected by
calibration. This will likely need tweaking on your
setup. If the measured audio onset delta by DataPixx is
much lower (or almost zero) than the expected delta
reported by PsychPortAudio, then the triggerLevel may be
too low and you should try if slightly higher thresholds
help to discriminate signal from noise. Too high values
may cause a hang of the script. In practice, levels
between 0.01 and 0.1 should yield good results. Setting
the ‘useDPixx’ flag to 2 also plots the waveforms
captured by DataPixx, which may help in selection of the
optimal triggerLevel.

‘reqlatencyclass’ Override setting for reqlatencyclass parameter. By default,
reqlatencyclass = 2 is used, for exclusive device access for
low latency / high timing precision mode.