Visor and camera providing a parallax-free field-of-view image for a head-mounted eye movement measurement system
First Claim
1. A system for viewing an external scene visually observed through at least one eye of an observer thereof comprising:
- (a) helmet means for mounting on the head of an observer;
(b) a field-of-view camera mounted on said helmet and having a field-of-view camera axis generally perpendicular to the optic axis of the obserber'"'"'s eye in the sense that said field-of-view camera'"'"'s optic axis intersects said eye'"'"'s optic axis;
(c) an especially configured visor mounted on said helmet directly in front of said eye, said visor at least partially transparent to light from said scene transmitted to said eye of the observer along said optic axis and reflecting said light from said scene as a mirror image to said field-of-view camera; and
(d) adjustment means associated with said visor, said field-of-view camera and said helmet means for spacing the visor at equal distances between said eye and said field-of-view camera measured from said intersection of said optic axis, and adjusting the angle between said visor and said field-of-view camera axis, to be equal to the angle between said visor and said eye'"'"'s optic axis said angles being measured from the same side of said visor so that parallax is minimized to permit the point-of-view camera to accurately record said external scene as visualized by said eye.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A head-mounted, eye-movement, measurement system is provided with an optically flat glass laminated visor through which the observer views the external scene. Mounted so as to be vertically spaced from one side of the eye'"'"'s optic axis is an eye tracker module for recording the observer'"'"'s eye-movement relative to the head, principally by measuring the position of the pupil and corneal reflex, by reflecting near infrared light to and from the observer'"'"'s eye vis-a-vis the front surface of the visor. Mounted so as to be vertically spaced on the opposite side of the eye'"'"'s optic axis is a field-of-view camera which records the external scene viewed by the observer by reflecting external scene light from the back side of the visor. The distances and angular relationship of the visor, camera and eye are controlled to eliminate parallax from the field-of-view camera while also providing a stable arrangement permitting wide-angle scene viewing and accurate recordal of eye movements.
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Citations
57 Claims
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1. A system for viewing an external scene visually observed through at least one eye of an observer thereof comprising:
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(a) helmet means for mounting on the head of an observer; (b) a field-of-view camera mounted on said helmet and having a field-of-view camera axis generally perpendicular to the optic axis of the obserber'"'"'s eye in the sense that said field-of-view camera'"'"'s optic axis intersects said eye'"'"'s optic axis; (c) an especially configured visor mounted on said helmet directly in front of said eye, said visor at least partially transparent to light from said scene transmitted to said eye of the observer along said optic axis and reflecting said light from said scene as a mirror image to said field-of-view camera; and (d) adjustment means associated with said visor, said field-of-view camera and said helmet means for spacing the visor at equal distances between said eye and said field-of-view camera measured from said intersection of said optic axis, and adjusting the angle between said visor and said field-of-view camera axis, to be equal to the angle between said visor and said eye'"'"'s optic axis said angles being measured from the same side of said visor so that parallax is minimized to permit the point-of-view camera to accurately record said external scene as visualized by said eye. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A head-mounted eye-movement system for monitoring an observer'"'"'s view of any external scene as seen through at least one of the observer'"'"'s eyes, said system comprising:
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(a) a field-of-view camera positioned vertically on one side of the optic axis of said eye for recording said scene; (b) eye tracking means including an eye tracking source of near infrared light for recording the position of said eye as said observer views said scene vertically positioned on the opposite side of the eye'"'"'s optic axis; (c) a visor positioned vertically between said field-of-view camera and said eye tracker means at the intersection of said eye'"'"'s optic axis with said field-of-view camera'"'"'s optic axis, said visor transparent to visible light to permit said observer to view said scene while looking through said visor; (d) optical coating means on said visor, said coating means reflecting said eye tracker light to actuate said eye tracking means while reflecting light from said scene to said field-of-view camera to simultaneously permit said field-of-view camera to record said scene. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. In a head-mounted eye monitor system including an eye tracker camera, an external eye tracker source of near infrared light, and a field-of-view camera for recording the external scene viewed by at least one eye of the observer, the improvement comprising:
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(a) means for mounting at least the lens of said eye tracker camera, in fixed relationship to the head of the observer, vertically spaced from and on one side of the optic axis of said observer'"'"'s eye; (b) means for mounting at least the lens of said field-of-view camera in fixed relationship to the head of the observer vertically spaced from and on the opposite side of the optic axis of said observer'"'"'s eye from that of said eye tracker camera; (c) a visor positioned at the intersection of the optic axis of said observer'"'"'s eye with the optic axis of said field-of-view camera and transparent to visible light from said external scene; and (d) reflective means on said visor for reflecting said eye tracker light from one side of said visor to said eye tracker camera for recording the positions of said observer'"'"'s eye and reflecting light from said external scene from the opposite side of said visor and in the opposite direction to said field-of-view camera for recording said external scene as viewed by said observer'"'"'s eye. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. An eye-movement monitoring system comprising
an eye-tracker camera, an external eye-tracker source of near infrared light, a field-of-view camera for recording the external scene viewed by at least one eye of an observer, means for mounting at least the lens of said eyetracker camera, vertically spaced from and on one side of the optic axis of said observer'"'"'s eye; -
means for mounting at least the lens of said field-of-view camera vertically spaced from and on the opposite side of the optic axis of said observer'"'"'s eye from that of said eye-tracker camera; a visor positioned at the intersection of the optic axis of said observer'"'"'s eye with the optic axis of said field-of-view camera and transparent to visible light from said external scene; and reflective means on said visor for reflecting said eye-tracker light from one side of said visor to said eyetracker camera for recording the positions of said observer'"'"'s eye and reflecting light from said external scene from the opposite side of said visor and in the opposite direction to said field-of-view camera for recording said external scene as viewed by said observer'"'"'s eye. - View Dependent Claims (57)
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Specification