Eye tracking based defocusing

• US 8,990,843 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2012
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: MobiTV Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Karlsson, Kent, Kwan, Avery Audrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, WILLIAM JW
• Application Number:
  US13/661,308
• Publication Number:
  US 20140123162A1
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

Described herein are techniques and mechanisms for eye tracking based defocusing. According to various embodiments, video content may be transmitted from a server for presentation at a remote computing device in communication with the server via a network. Eye tracking information identified via an optical sensor at the client machine may be received from the remote computing device. The eye tracking information may describe a state of one or both eyes of an individual located proximate to the remote computing device. A first portion of the video content on which the eyes are more focused relative to a second portion of the video content may be identified. The video content may be updated based on the received eye tracking information. The second portion of the video content may be defocused relative to the first portion of the video content in the updated video content.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting, from a server, video content for presentation at a remote computing device in communication with the server via a network;

receiving, from the remote computing device, eye tracking information identified via an optical sensor at the remote computing device, the eye tracking information describing a state of one or both eyes of an individual located proximate to the remote computing device;

identifying a first portion and a third party portion of the video content on which the eyes are more focused relative to a second portion of the video content;

determining aggregated eye tracking information from a plurality of users, the aggregated eye tracking information including the received eye tracking information; and

updating the video content based on the aggregated eye tracking information at selected time intervals, wherein the selection of time intervals are prioritized by identifying time intervals likely to benefit from focus adjustment, the second portion of the video content being defocused relative to the first portion and the third portion of the video content in the updated video content.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the second portion of the video content is encoded at a lower resolution relative to the first portion of the video content.

3. The method recited in claim 1, wherein defocusing the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content comprises applying a technique selected from the group consisting of:

dimming the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, reducing the contrast of the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, blurring the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, and applying a coarser filter to the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content.

4. The method recited in claim 1, the method further comprising:

transmitting the updated video content to a second remote computing device.

5. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the video content has a larger memory size in storage than the updated video content.

6. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the eye tracking information identifies a screen location on which the eyes are focused.

7. The method recited in claim 6, wherein the eye tracking information identifies a time duration during which the eyes are focused in the identified direction.

8. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the eye tracking information comprises movement information, the movement information identifying a direction and a velocity of eye movement.

9. The method recited in claim 8, wherein the eye movement information also identifies an acceleration of eye movement.

10. A system comprising:

a remote computing device comprising;

a network interface operable to receive video content for presentation at the remote computing device,

a display screen operable to display the received video content,

an optical sensor operable to identify eye tracking information describing a state of one or both eyes of an individual located proximate to the remote computing device,

memory operable to store the received eye tracking information, and

a processor operable to transmit the received eye tracking information via the network interface; and

a server comprising;

a network interface operable to communicate with the remote computing device via a network, and

a processor operable to identify a first portion and a third portion of the video content on which the eyes are more focused relative to a second portion of the video content, determine aggregated eye tracking information for a plurality of users, and update the video content based on the aggregated eye tracking information at selected time intervals, wherein the selection of time intervals are prioritized by identifying time intervals likely to benefit from focus adjustment, the second portion of the video content being defocused relative to the first portion and the third portion of the video content in the updated video content, the aggregated eye tracking information including the received eye tracking information.

11. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the second portion of the video content is encoded at a lower resolution relative to the first portion of the video content.

12. The system recited in claim 10, wherein defocusing the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content comprises applying a technique selected from the group consisting of:

dimming the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, reducing the contrast of the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, blurring the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, and applying a coarser filter to the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content.

13. The system recited in claim 10, transmitting the updated video content to a second remote computing device.

14. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the video content has a larger memory size in storage than the updated video content.

15. The system recited in claim 10, wherein the eye tracking information identifies a screen location on which the eyes are focused.

16. The system recited in claim 15, wherein the eye tracking information identifies a time duration during which the eyes are focused in the identified direction.

17. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions stored thereon for performing a method, the method comprising:

transmitting, from a server, video content for presentation at a remote computing device in communication with the server via a network;

receiving, from the remote computing device, eye tracking information identified via an optical sensor at the remote computing device, the eye tracking information describing a state of one or both eyes of an individual located proximate to the remote computing device;

identifying a first portion and a third portion of the video content on which the eyes are more focused relative to a second portion of the video content;

determining aggregated eye tracking information from a plurality of users, the aggregated eye tracking information including the received eye tracking information; and

updating the video content based on the aggregated eye tracking information at selected time intervals, wherein the selection of time intervals are prioritized by identifying time intervals likely to benefit from focus adjustment, the second portion of the video content being defocused relative to the first portion and the third portion of the video content in the updated video content.

18. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 17, wherein the second portion of the video content is encoded at a lower resolution relative to the first portion of the video content.

19. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 17, wherein defocusing the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content comprises applying a technique selected from the group consisting of:

dimming the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, reducing the contrast of the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, blurring the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content, and applying a coarser filter to the second portion of the video content relative to the first portion of the video content.

20. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 17, transmitting the updated video content to a second remote computing device.