System And Method For Quantifying And Mapping Visual Salience

• US 20110172556A1
• Filed: 03/23/2011
• Published: 07/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MindsEye Labs Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: Ami Klin, Warren Jones
• Inventors: Klin, Ami, Jones, Warren
• Granted Patent: US 8,343,067 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/558
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/163 by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4005 for evaluating the sensory system A61B5/12, A61B5/4058 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence

Abstract

A system for quantifying and mapping visual salience to a visual stimulus, including a processor, software for receiving data indicative of a group of individual'"'"'s ocular responses to a visual stimulus, software for determining a distribution of visual resources at each of at least two times for each of at least a portion of the individuals. The system further including software for determining and quantifying a group distribution of visual resources at each of the at least two times and software for generating a display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the visual stimulus.

Claims

1. A method for displaying a plurality of individuals'"'"' ocular responses to a dynamic visual stimulus that changes over time, comprising the steps of:

receiving data indicative of each of the plurality of individuals'"'"' ocular responses to the dynamic visual stimulus;

generating a three-dimensional scanpath based on the data for each of the plurality of individuals, wherein two of the dimensions correspond to a position of a point of regard for each individual and one of the dimensions corresponds to time;

displaying the scanpaths in a three-dimensional grid comprising two positional axes and one time axis.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying an attentional funnel around the scanpaths.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying a frame of the dynamic visual stimulus in the grid positioned on the time axis so as to correspond with the individuals'"'"' ocular responses to the frame.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of displaying the scanpaths further comprises streaming the scanpaths to show the progression of the scanpaths as the time axis advances with time.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of displaying an attentional funnel around the scanpaths;

and

streaming the attentional funnel to show the progression of the funnel as the time axis advances with time.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of displaying at least a portion of the dynamic visual stimulus such that the attentional funnel streams through the portion of the dynamic visual stimulus so that the individuals'"'"' ocular responses represented by the attentional funnel passing through the portion of the dynamic visual stimulus correspond to the frame of the dynamic visual stimulus being displayed.

7. A method for measuring the distribution of visual resources of an individual in response to a dynamic visual stimulus that changes over time, comprising the steps of:

receiving data indicative of the individual'"'"'s ocular responses to the dynamic visual stimulus;

calculating an effective distribution of retinal cells for the individual;

measuring points of regard of the dynamic visual stimulus over time for the individual; and

mapping the effective distribution of retinal cells onto the points of regard for the individual.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of calculating an effective distribution of retinal cells comprises calculating an effective distribution of ganglion cells.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the steps of:

creating a density matrix of the anatomical distribution of retinal ganglion cells;

creating a density matrix of the anatomical distribution of cone photoreceptors;

determining a ratio of ganglion cells to cone photoreceptors across the entire retina;

multiplying the distribution of cone photoreceptors by the ratio to yield a map of effective retinal ganglion cells.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of:

determining a density of cells relative to a unit of viewing angle for the individual based on the individual'"'"'s field-of-view.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the individual'"'"'s field of view is one of a field-of-interest or a distance from a plane of fixation.

12. A method for quantifying and mapping visual salience to a dynamic visual stimulus that changes over time, comprising the steps of:

receiving data indicative of each of a plurality of individual'"'"'s ocular responses to the dynamic visual stimulus;

determining, based on said data, a distribution of visual resources of the plurality of individuals with respect to at least a portion of the dynamic visual stimulus; and

generating a display of the distribution of visual resources in a three-dimensional grid comprising two positional axes and one of a time axis or a salience axis.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said step of determining comprises calculating an effective distribution of retinal cells for each of at least a portion of the plurality of individuals.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein said step of determining further comprises the steps of:

creating a density matrix of the anatomical distribution of retinal ganglion cells;

creating a density matrix of the anatomical distribution of cone photoreceptors;

determining a ratio of ganglion cells to cone photoreceptors across the entire retina;

multiplying the distribution of cone photoreceptors by the ratio to yield a map of effective retinal ganglion cells.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the three-dimensional grid comprises a time axis and the method further comprises the step of displaying a frame of the portion of the dynamic visual stimulus in the grid positioned on the time axis so as to correspond with the plurality of individual'"'"'s distribution of visual resources corresponding to the frame.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the three-dimensional grid comprises a time axis and the method further comprises the step of displaying an attentional funnel corresponding to the distribution of visual resources.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said step of displaying the attentional funnel further comprises streaming the attentional funnel to show the progression of the attentional funnel as the time axis advances with time.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of displaying the portion of the dynamic visual stimulus on the grid such that the attentional funnel streams through the portion of the dynamic visual stimulus so that the distribution of visual resources represented by the attentional funnel passing through the portion of the dynamic visual stimulus corresponds to the frame of the portion of the dynamic visual stimulus being displayed.

19. The method according to claim 12, wherein said step of determining a distribution of visual resources includes aggregating the distributions of visual resources of each of the plurality of individuals.