Fast wake-up in a gaze tracking system
First Claim
1. A method for initiating control of a gaze tracking system from a low power mode, wherein the method comprises:
- in response to a gaze tracking activation signal, leaving a low power mode of the gaze tracking system;
capturing, at a first frame rate, a first plurality of pictures of at least a portion of a head of a viewer using a first restricted region of a light-sensitive surface;
determining, based on only the first plurality of pictures a first gaze point value of the viewer;
providing a first control signal to a computer device based on the first gaze point value;
capturing, at a second frame rate, lower than the first frame rate, a second plurality of pictures of at least a portion of the head of the viewer using a second region of the light-sensitive surface;
determining a second gaze point value of the viewer based on a picture from the second plurality of pictures and a picture from the first plurality of pictures; and
providing a second control signal to the computer device based on the second gaze point value.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A gaze tracking system, leaving a low power mode in response to an activation signal, captures an initial burst of eye pictures in short time by restricting the image area of a sensor, with the purpose of enabling an increased frame rate. Subsequent eye pictures are captured at normal frame rate. The first gaze point value is computed memorylessly based on the initial burst of eye pictures and no additional imagery, while subsequent values may be computed recursively by taking into account previous gaze point values or information from previous eye pictures. The restriction of the image area may be guided by a preliminary overview picture captured using the same or a different sensor. From the gaze point values, the system may derive a control signal to be supplied to a computer device with a visual display.
8 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method for initiating control of a gaze tracking system from a low power mode, wherein the method comprises:
-
in response to a gaze tracking activation signal, leaving a low power mode of the gaze tracking system; capturing, at a first frame rate, a first plurality of pictures of at least a portion of a head of a viewer using a first restricted region of a light-sensitive surface; determining, based on only the first plurality of pictures a first gaze point value of the viewer; providing a first control signal to a computer device based on the first gaze point value; capturing, at a second frame rate, lower than the first frame rate, a second plurality of pictures of at least a portion of the head of the viewer using a second region of the light-sensitive surface; determining a second gaze point value of the viewer based on a picture from the second plurality of pictures and a picture from the first plurality of pictures; and providing a second control signal to the computer device based on the second gaze point value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A system for initiating a gaze tracking system associated with a computer system from a low power mode, wherein the system comprises:
-
an eye tracking device; one or more processors configured to; in response to a gaze tracking activation signal, leaving a low power mode of the gaze tracking system; capturing, at a first frame rate using a first restricted region of a light-sensitive surface of the eye tracking device, a first plurality of pictures of at least a portion of a head of a viewer; determining, based on only the first plurality of pictures, a first gaze point value of the viewer; providing a first control signal to a computer system based on the first gaze point value; capturing, at a second frame rate lower than the first frame rate, using a second region of the light-sensitive surface of the eye tracking device, a second plurality of pictures of at least a portion of the head of the viewer; determining a second gaze point value of the viewer based on a picture from the second plurality of pictures and a picture from the first plurality of pictures; and providing a second control signal to the computer system based on the second gaze point value. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
-
-
15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon executable by a computing device for initiating a gaze tracking system from a low power mode that when executed cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
-
leaving a low power mode of the gaze tracking system in response to a gaze tracking activation signal; capturing, at a first frame rate using a first restricted region of a light-sensitive surface, a first plurality of pictures of at least a portion of a head of a viewer; determining, based on only the first plurality of pictures, a first gaze point value of the viewer; providing a first control signal to a computer system based on the first gaze point value; capturing, at a second frame rate lower than the first frame rate, using a second region of the light-sensitive surface, a second plurality of pictures of at least a portion of the head of the viewer; determining a second gaze point value of the viewer based on a picture from the second plurality of pictures and a picture from the first plurality of pictures; and providing a second control signal to the computer system based on the second gaze point value. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification