EDIA

A Unity XR Toolbox for research

EDIA is designed to reduce implementation overhead in XR experiments by providing reusable architectural patterns and components. It supports rapid iteration and a maintainable project structure, while leaving study-specific interaction logic and Unity scene configuration under the user’s control.

The EDIA toolbox is a collection of modules (Unity packages) that help you design and run experimental research in XR.

Key features

• Structure your experiment

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  Define the information for your experiment at the granularity level which you need: from sessions to blocks to trials to single steps within trials. EDIA builds upon and extends the functionalities of the UXF — Unity Experiment Framework (Brookes et al., 2020) package.

  Getting started

• Manage it with config files

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  Use human readable config files to provide and change central information for your experiment without needing to recompile or touch your Unity code.

  Overview

• Unified eye tracking integration

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  EDIA provides an integration of eye tracking for multiple different headsets (HTC Vive, Varjo, Meta Quest Pro, Pico), managing the parsing of the eye tracker output for you in the original sampling rate, and providing it via a standardized interface.

  EDIA Eye

• Remotely control mobile XR experiments

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  Control experiments which run on a mobile XR headset (e.g., Meta Quest) externally and stream what the participant is seeing.

  EDIA RCAS

• Automatically log relevant data

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  Use pre-configured tools to log different kinds of data: behavior and movements of the participant, experimental variables, eye tracking data, ...

  Getting started

• Synchronize with external data

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  Use the LabStreamingLayer protocol to synchronize your experiment with other data streams (e.g., EEG, fNIRS, ...).

  EDIA LSL

Getting started

Read our getting started guide.
To install the EDIA modules into your Unity project, we recommend using our EDIA Installer ( download, README, source).

Modules

EDIA Core EDIA LSL EDIA RCAS EDIA Eye EDIA Eye Submodules

• The 🖤 heart of the EDIA toolbox.
• Structure your experiment: Sessions <> Blocks <> Trials <> Trial Steps
• Use logically nested Config files (JSON) to manage the compiled experiment.
• Send messages to the XR user.
• Experimenter interface.
• Download from → EDIA Core

1. Use the LabStreamingLayer protocol to synchronize your data.
2. The EDIA LSL module is a convenience wrapper and extension of the LSL4Unity package.
3. It provides prefabs and scripts which allow you to
   1. Send precisely timed triggers with a single command.
   2. Easily stream data (eye tracking data, movement data) in world or local coordinates.
4. Download from → EDIA LSL

1. Remote Control And Streaming.
2. Interface with your experiment which runs on a mobile headset.
3. Load Config files from another device.
4. Send commands to proceed in the experiment.
5. Stream the headset view to the experimenter's device (*limited).
6. Download from → EDIA RCAS

• Central eye tracking package of the EDIA toolbox.
• Provides a unified interface for accessing eye tracking data.
• Example visualizations of eye tracking data: gaze, eye openness, ...
• Interface for logging eye tracking data via EDIA LSL or writing it to disc.
• Download from → EDIA Eye

Separate submodules (packages) allow to parse the eye tracking data from the respective device into the unified EDIA eye tracking structure.
Supported headsets:

Meta Quest Pro

HTC Vive Pro Eye

Varjo Aero

PICO 4 Enterprise

Get involved

If you want to use EDIA or start contributing, please reach out to us.