Method and installation for detecting and following an eye and the gaze direction thereof
First Claim
1. An eye detection installation comprising:
- one or more light sources for emitting light in directions toward the head of a user,a detector for receiving light from the head of a user and to repeatedly capture pictures thereof, the detector having a light sensitive surface comprising a plurality of picture elements, andan evaluation unit connected to the detector for determining the position and/or gaze direction of an eye, the evaluation unit being arranged to determine, in a picture captured by the detector, an area in which an image of an eye or images of eyes is/are located, and, after determining the area, to control the detector to forward to the evaluation unit information about successive or following pictures that only corresponds to the determined area of the image captured by the detectors,the detector only reading out information from a portion of the detector'"'"'s surface that corresponds to the determined area, and thereby, data that are then to be forwarded to the evaluation unit, the determined area representing less than all the picture elements of the light sensitive surface.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
When detecting the position and gaze direction of eyes, a photo sensor (1) and light sources (2, 3) placed around a display (1) and a calculation and control unit (6) are used. One of the light sources is placed around the sensor and includes inner and outer elements (3′; 3″). When only the inner elements are illuminated, a strong bright eye effect in a captured image is obtained, this resulting in a simple detection of the pupils and thereby a safe determination of gaze direction. When only the outer elements and the outer light sources (2) are illuminated, a determination of the distance of the eye from the photo sensor is made. After it has been possible to determine the pupils in an image, in the following captured images only those areas around the pupils are evaluated where the images of the eyes are located. Which one of the eyes that is the left eye and the right eye can be determined by following the images of the eyes and evaluating the positions thereof in successively captured images.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. An eye detection installation comprising:
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one or more light sources for emitting light in directions toward the head of a user, a detector for receiving light from the head of a user and to repeatedly capture pictures thereof, the detector having a light sensitive surface comprising a plurality of picture elements, and an evaluation unit connected to the detector for determining the position and/or gaze direction of an eye, the evaluation unit being arranged to determine, in a picture captured by the detector, an area in which an image of an eye or images of eyes is/are located, and, after determining the area, to control the detector to forward to the evaluation unit information about successive or following pictures that only corresponds to the determined area of the image captured by the detectors, the detector only reading out information from a portion of the detector'"'"'s surface that corresponds to the determined area, and thereby, data that are then to be forwarded to the evaluation unit, the determined area representing less than all the picture elements of the light sensitive surface. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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2. An eye detection installation comprising:
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one or more light sources for emitting light in directions toward the head of a user, a detector for receiving light from the head of a user and to repeatedly capture pictures thereof, and an evaluation unit connected to the detector for determining the position and/or gaze direction of an eye, the evaluation unit being arranged; to determine, in a picture captured by the detector, an area in which an image of an eye or images of eyes is/are located, after determining the area, to control the detector to forward to the evaluation unit information about successive or following pictures that only corresponds to the determined area of the image captured by the detector, to decide, in a current picture captured by the detector, whether the picture contains images of the two eyes of a user, in a case where the evaluation unit decides that an image of only one eye exists in the current picture, to determine that the one eye is the same eye that has an image within a previously captured picture, provided that the image of the eye has a position in the current picture that is sufficiently close to the position of the image of the eye in the previously captured picture, and in the case where the evaluation unit decides that an image of only one eye exists in the current picture, the position of the image of the eye in the current picture does not correspond to or is sufficiently close to the position of any eye in one or more previously captured pictures, and the position of the image of the eye in the current picture is such that the lateral distance from one edge of the current picture is smaller than, but the lateral distance from the other edge is larger than, a distance that corresponds to the distance between the user'"'"'s eyes, to take the eye, an image of which exists in the current picture, to be the eye that means that an image of the other eye of the user would be located outside the current picture.
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3. An eye detection installation comprising:
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one or more light sources for emitting light in directions towards the head of a user, a detector for receiving light from the head of a user and to repeatedly capture pictures thereof, and an evaluation unit connected to the detector to determine the position and/or gaze direction of an eye, the evaluation unit being arranged; to determine, in a current picture captured by the detector, whether the picture contains images of the two eyes of a user, to determine in the case where the evaluation unit decides that an image of only one eye exists in the current picture that the one eye is the same eye, an image of which exists in a previously captured picture, provided that the image of the eye has a position in the current picture that is sufficiently close to the position of the image of the eye of the previously captured image, and in the case where the evaluation unit decides that an image of only one eye exists in the current picture, that the position of the image of the eye in the current picture does not correspond to or is sufficiently close to the position of any eye in one or more previously captured pictures and that the position of the image of the eye in the current picture is such that the lateral distance from one edge of the current picture smaller than but the lateral distance from the other edge is larger than a distance corresponding to the distance between the eyes of the user, to take that eye, an image of which exists in the current picture, to be the eye that means that an image of the other eye of the user would be located outside the current picture.
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Specification