Eye gaze direction and point of regard has proven to be a very powerful and useful source of information in human computer interaction. The user’s gaze direction can be used as an input, in addition to the mouse, keyboard and other input means. However, despite the potential applications, gaze tracking systems are still expensive and they require cooperation in calibration. In this paper we develop a theory for eye gaze tracking, introduce the optical plane, and show its analogy to multi-view epipolar geometry, where the eyeball center is considered a focal point. We first use it to prove that eye gaze tracking under fixed head position is a homography between the pupil project center in image plane and the point of regard in screen plane. This theory supports existing gaze tracking methods that require user calibration at each session. Next we use it to develop a family of eye gaze tracking techniques that requires no user calibration, and allow free head motion. The theory is supported by preliminary results of ray tracing simulation, and a prototype system is already in advanced stage.
By: Arnon Amir, Myron Flickner, David Koons
Published in: RJ10275 in 2002
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