Inexpensive interferometric eye tracking system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An eye tracking system comprising:
- a narrow band tunable light source;
modulating means for modulating said light source with a modulating frequency fmod ;
a photo detector;
scanning means passing modulated light from said light source to a user'"'"'s eye and reflecting light returned from a cornea and a retina of the user'"'"'s eye to said photo detector, said photo detector measuring interference fringes formed by light returned from the cornea and light returned by the retina; and
signal processing means connected to said photo detector for processing the measured interference fringes between light returned from the cornea and the retina of the eye to generate an output signal representative of a direction of a user'"'"'s gaze.
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Abstract
An inexpensive eye tracking system requires no head gear. The eye tracking system uses the interference fringes between the corneal glint and the "red eye" retinal reflection to obtain an angularly resolved, background-immune eye point signal for use as a pointing device for personal computers. Tunable (eye safe) diode laser spectroscopy is used to measure the period and amplitude of the Fabry-Perot fringes caused by the interference between the corneal glint and the "red" reflection form the retina.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. An eye tracking system comprising:
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a narrow band tunable light source; modulating means for modulating said light source with a modulating frequency fmod ; a photo detector; scanning means passing modulated light from said light source to a user'"'"'s eye and reflecting light returned from a cornea and a retina of the user'"'"'s eye to said photo detector, said photo detector measuring interference fringes formed by light returned from the cornea and light returned by the retina; and signal processing means connected to said photo detector for processing the measured interference fringes between light returned from the cornea and the retina of the eye to generate an output signal representative of a direction of a user'"'"'s gaze. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of tracking a user'"'"'s eye comprising the steps of:
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modulating a tunable light source with a modulation frequency fmod to produce a modulated light beam; scanning the modulated light beam across the user'"'"'s eye; measuring interference fringes formed by light returned from a cornea and light returned from a retina of the user'"'"'s eye; and processing the measured interference fringes between light returned from the cornea and the retina of the eye to generate an output signal representative of a direction of a user'"'"'s gaze. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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Specification