Version 2.5

Version 2.5.2, released 12 Feb 2010

    • Relaxed restrictions on the velocity stablization feature in Trial mode. It is now allowed on Fiber1, Fiber2, and any XYScope or RMVideo target. However, users should be aware that not all video targets are suitable for stabilization and may not behave as expected.

    • Added check box Pattern motion WRT screen? to the definition of the RMVideo Random-dot Patch target. When checked, pattern velocities in Trial or Continuous mode are specified with respect to the screen center instead of the target center. This permits a more accurate emulation of the XYScope "noisy dots" targets in the specific situation when both target window and pattern are moving with the same non-zero velocity with respect to the screen.

    • Maestro now successfully updates the RMVideo executable. As of RMVideo version 2 (Maestro 2.5.1), the RMVideo auto-update feature should work.

    • Bug fixed: The MEX function editcxdata() failed to properly process the JMWork-added action codes that add or remove spikes from an existing sorted-spike train. The function would replace these codes with zeros when it rewrote the "action edits" record, and since 0 is considered an invalid action code, the file appeared to contain no actions when it was read back by readcxdata().

    • Bug fixed: In the Maestro data file, spike and event data are stored as integer-valued inter-event intervals in # of 10-microsecond ticks since recording started, but readcxdata() converts these to absolute "event arrival" times in milliseconds. Since editcxdata() allows editing of sorted-spike train channel data, one would expect no changes in that data in a simple "round-trip": res = readcxdata(F); editcxdata(F, res); res2 = readcxdata(F). This was not the case, because of truncation errors in the conversion. The conversion algorithm has now been fixed.

    • The readcxdata() source code ZIP file available for download in this guide now also includes the additional code file needed to build the editcxdata() MEX function as well.

    • NOTE: As of 22 Feb 2010, the various Maestro-related utilities for Matlab are now available only for Matlab version 7.0 or greater. All MEX functions are compiled with Matlab 7 SP 3. Support for Matlab 6.5 is discontinued.


Version 2.5.1, released 07 Dec 2009

The dynamic orientation feature now applies to both RMVideo Grating and Plaid targets, and the implementation is subtly different from that in v2.5.0. When the Dynamic orientation? box is checked in the definition of a Grating or Plaid target, each component grating's orientation is offset on a frame-by-frame basis by the direction angle of the target pattern velocity vector during that frame (it is NOT set equal to that angle, as was the case in v2.5.0). If the velocity vector is (0,0) in a given frame, then the grating keeps the orientation it had in the previous frame. Note that the Dynamic orientation? and Independent gratings? features are mutually exclusive for the plaid target. In the single-grating case, you will typically employ the dynamic orientation feature on a grating with a defined drift axis of 0 deg -- so that the grating is always perpendicular to the pattern velocity vector.

NOTE: Unfortunately, Maestro was unable to automatically update the RMVideo executable as hoped -- due to a problem on the RMVideo side. The executable file was downloaded successfully, but its permissions were incorrect, so restart failed. After installing and starting Maestro 2.5.1 and seeing this error, shutdown Maestro, navigate to the RMVideo install directory on the RMVideo workstation itself, type chmod 4755 rmvideo to fix the permissions, then restart the program with ./rmvideo connect, then restart Maestro. With the next release of Maestro/RMVideo, the auto-update mechanism should work!


Version 2.5.0, released 23 Sep 2009 (rev 24 Nov)

    • Introduced new Movie target for the RMVideo display. This target plays back a movie extracted from a video file stored in the RMVideo machine's "movie store". The store consists of a series of up to 50 folders containing up to 50 videos each. Users can view the current contents of the store, remove selected folders or files, and download video files to RMVideo directly from Maestro using a new Idle mode control panel, RMVideo Movies. The video source file for a particular Movie target is identified by a folder and file name. Three new target flags control the movie's playback behavior. A new section in the Target Editor exposes these parameters.

      • The Movie target is intended only for use in Trial mode. The movie will not start until the first time it is turned on. You can elect to have it loop indefinitely or play just once; pause when turned off; and play back at the refresh rate of the monitor or the frame rate specified in the video file itself. You can pan the movie window as it plays, and you can play more than one movie at a time, as long as RMVideo can keep up. The implementation relies upon open-source libraries that support a variety of video file formats and codecs.

      • The new target parameters (movie folder and file names) required a change in the Maestro experiment document. Experiments documents created or saved under Maestro 2.5.0 cannot be opened by an older version of the program. In addition, the content of the target definition records saved in a Maestro data file also changed. Downstream analysis programs readcxdata() and JMWork have been updated accordingly.

    • You can now switch among alternative RMVideo display modes, and adjust the monitor's RGB gamma-correction factors via new controls on the Video Display control panel tab. These controls are enabled only in Idle mode. A video mode switch takes up to 10 seconds because RMVideo re-measures the refresh rate over a 500-frame interval after the mode switch. The minimum supported video mode has a refresh rate of 75Hz and a screen resolution of 1024x768.

    • RMVideo now requires 24-bit color. Previously, 16- or 24-bit color was supported.

    • Fixed a minor bug in setting up the RMVideo's fullscreen display: The so-called "invisible cursor" had been visible as a single-pixel dot on the screen.

    • As a convenience to users -- particularly those outside the Lisberger lab - I've added support for checking the version of the RMVideo executable and updating it directly from Maestro during startup. Maestro connects to RMVideo and requests version info. If the version is out of date, it downloads the current RMVideo executable (which is now included in the Maestro installation directory) directly over the private Ethernet connection, replacing the old version on the RMVideo host machine. It then issues a command to restart RMVideo. With this change, it should be much easier to install future updates of RMVideo!

    • A new feature for the RMVideo Grating target. If you check the Dynamic orientation? check box in the Gratings/Plaids section of the Target Editor, the orientation of the grating will track the direction of the pattern velocity vector on a frame-by-frame basis during a trial (or in Continous mode). Obviously, both H and V components of pattern velocity are significant in this case. When the feature is not checked, the grating target behaves as it did in prior versions: the orientation is a constant, the H component of pattern velocity is the grating's drift velocity (along the "drift axis" perpendicular to the grating lines), and the V component of pattern velocity is ignored. The adjustable orientation feature makes it much easier to design trials that display gratings tailored to a unit's preferred direction of motion. In addition, you can design a compact set of trials to determine the preferred direction of a just-acquired unit.

    • (revised 24 Nov) For enhanced visibility, changed the appearance of the eye location symbols in the Eye/Target Position plot: "Eye 1" is a solid white rectangle instead of a white "X", and "Eye 2" is a solid magenta rectangle instead of a red "X".