IDENTIFICATION OF VISUAL FIXATIONS IN A VIDEO STREAM

• US 20100128118A1
• Filed: 11/25/2009
• Published: 05/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Locarna Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Locarna Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: ENRIQUEZ, Mario, PEDROSA, Ricardo, SWINDELLS, Colin
• Application Number:
  US12/626,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20100128118A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/78
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/19 Sensors therefor

Abstract

A method for identifying a visual fixation in an eye tracking video including: locating eye gaze coordinates in a first frame of a video, defining a spatial region surrounding the eye gaze coordinates, identifying and marking consecutive video frames having an eye gaze coordinate location within the spatial region. Wherein the consecutive video frames span at least a minimum fixation time and define a visual fixation.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a visual fixation in a video stored in a computer memory, said method comprising:

performing, on a computer, a search to locate eye gaze coordinates in a first frame of said video;

performing, on said computer, a calculation to define a spatial region surrounding said eye gaze coordinates;

performing, on said computer, a comparison to determine if consecutive video frames have an eye gaze coordinate location within said spatial region;

electronically marking said consecutive video frames in said video;

wherein said consecutive video frames span at least a minimum fixation time and define said visual fixation.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said spatial region is a geometric shape.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein said geometric shape is selected from the group consisting of:

circle, ellipse, square and rectangle.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said spatial region has a diameter that corresponds to between 0.01°

and 180°

of a field of view of a user.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said minimum fixation time is between 10 and 2000 milliseconds.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a pattern of visual fixations is identified, said pattern comprising at least two visual fixations occurring in succession.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising:

rendering said visual fixation for display on a display screen;

receiving tag input from a user interface; and

associating said tag input with said visual fixation by storing said tag input in computer memory.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein said eye camera and said scene camera are mounted on a wearable accessory.

10. A computer readable medium comprising instructions executable on a processor for implementing the method of claim 8.

7-1. An apparatus for identifying a visual fixation in a video stored in a computer memory, said apparatus comprising:

an eye camera for obtaining eye video;

a scene camera for obtaining scene video;

a computer processor for merging said eye video and said scene video and identifying and marking visual fixations to provide a visual fixation-marked video, said visual fixation-marked video being stored in a computer memory; and

a user interface for displaying said visual fixation-marked video and receiving tag input, said tag input being stored in said computer memory and being associated with said visual fixations.

9. A method for identifying a visual fixation in a video, said method comprising:

locating eye gaze coordinates in a first frame of said video;

defining a spatial region surrounding said eye gaze coordinates; and

identifying and marking consecutive video frames having an eye gaze coordinate location within said spatial region;

wherein said consecutive video frames span at least a minimum fixation time and define a visual fixation.