Eye tracking apparatus and method employing grayscale threshold values
March 1, 2014. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.Patent References 3236578 3542457 Portable device for the accurate measurement of eye movements both in light and obscurity Eye controlled information transfer Position analyzer for vehicle drivers Eye-tracker communication system Computer vision system based upon solid state image sensor Infrared/video electronystagmographic apparatus Eye movement detector Visor and camera providing a parallax-free field-of-view image for a head-mounted eye movement measurement system InventorsAssigneeApplicationNo. 204008 filed on 03/01/1994US Classes:382/103, Target tracking or detecting345/158, Including orientation sensors (e.g., infrared, ultrasonic, remotely controlled)382/171, For segmenting an image382/291, Determining the position of an object708/141Including specific nonkeyboard-type information entryExaminersPrimary: Boudreau, Leo H.Assistant: Johns, Andrew W. Attorney, Agent or FirmForeign Patent References
International ClassG06K 009/00AbstractAn eye-tracking system determines the position of a user's pupil and maps this position into a point of regard of the user on an interface device, such as a display screen, or other real-world object by a system comprising a camera for acquiring a video image of the pupil; a frame grabber coupled to the camera for accepting and converting analog video data from the camera to digital pixel data; a computer coupled to the frame grabber for processing the digital pixel data to substantially determine the position of the pupil; a display screen coupled to the computer; and a support connected to the camera and display screen for fixing the relative physical positions thereof relative to the user's pupil. The processing performed by the computer may include the selection of a first pixel intensity threshold for the segmentation of the digital pixel data into first and second groups, where the total pixel area of the first group is selected to be substantially equal to a pre-determined value expected to correspond to the area of a user's pupil. The system may be calibrated by the user's following a cursor on the display screen while the system measures the pupil position for known locations of the cursor.Other References
Field of SearchAPPLICATIONSTarget tracking or detecting Using a characteristic of the eye For segmenting an image IMAGE SEGMENTATION Determining the position of an object Eye Operator body-mounted heads-up display (e.g., helmet mounted display) Cursor mark position control device Including orientation sensors (e.g., infrared, ultrasonic, remotely controlled) Including eye photography Including eye movement detection Using photodetector Support | |
