Trials Timer with Read and Write - multithreading

Question

I am creating a GUI in Matlab that will read and write data to a text file based on the trial duration. The user will enter the number of trials and trial duration and
then push the "start" button.
For example the user enters 5 trials at 10 seconds duration. While starting the 1st trial, I will need to read/write data continuously for 10 seconds, then stop and save the text file. This process will continue for the next 5 trials. Here is a brief code I tried to implement below.
How can I run both the timer for 10 seconds and simultaneously read/write data with that time limit?
Thanks in advance.
% Get Number of Trials
number_trials = str2double(get(handles.Number_Trials,'String'));
% Get Trial Duration
trial_duration = str2double(get(handles.Trial_Duration,'String'));
% Timer Counter
global timer_cnt
timer_cnt = 0;
global eye_data
eye_data = 0;
for i = 1:number_trials
% Set Current Trial Executing
set(handles.Current_Trial_Text,'String',num2str(i));
% Set Text File Specifications
data_fname = get(handles.Data_Filename_Edit_Text,'String');
file_fname = '.dat';
data_fname_txt = strcat(data_fname,file_fname);
% Timer Object
fprintf('%s\n','Timer Started');
% Pauses 10 Seconds
t = timer('TimerFcn','stat=false','StartDelay',10);
start(t);
stat = true;
while(stat == true)
disp('.');
pause(1)
end
fprintf('%s\n','Timer Ended');
delete(t);
end

Answer 1

In my experience, timers are usually used in the context of "wait this amount of time, then do foo" rather than how you're using it, which is "do foo until you've done it for this amount of time".
The humble tic/toc functions can do this for you.
t_start = tic;
while toc(t_start) < 10
% do data collection
end