Gaze activated content transfer system

• US 9,766,700 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2011
• Issued: 09/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Lyons, Kenton M., Pering, Trevor
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Yongjia
• Application Number:
  US13/976,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20160034029A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,106 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

A gaze activated data unit transfer system is described. An apparatus may comprise a gaze interface application operative on a processor circuit to manage data unit transfer operations based on eye movements of a human user. The gaze interface application may comprise a gaze interpreter component operative to receive eye movement information of a human eye from one or more eye gaze trackers, and interpret the eye movement information as a data unit transfer request to transfer a data unit from a source device to a target device, a data connection component operative to establish a data connection between the source and target devices using the transceiver in response to the data unit transfer request, and a data transfer component operative to send the data unit from the source device to the target device over the data connection. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

receive first portion of eye movement information of a human eye from an eye gaze tracker of a source device;

receive a second portion of the eye movement information from an eye gaze tracker of a target device,

determine aggregated eye movement information by aggregating the first portion of eye movement information and the second portion of the eye movement information;

extract a plurality of eye gaze segments based on the aggregated eye movement information;

identify an origin point and a termination point of the plurality of eye gaze segments based on the aggregated eye movement information;

map the origin point to a data unit stored by the source device;

map the termination point to the target device; and

analyze the plurality of eye gaze segments to determine whether at least one of the plurality of eye gaze segments is the data unit transfer to transfer the data unit from the source device to the target device based on at least one factor, the at least one factor comprising the termination point being a point outside of a boundary of a graphical user interface (GUI) view of the source device.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to map the origin point to a GUI element in a GUI view presented on a display for the source device, the GUI element representing the data unit stored in by the source device.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to establish a data connection between the source and target devices in response to the data unit transfer request.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions that when executed cause the system to send the data unit from the source device to the target device over the data connection.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the at least one factor comprising a speed of eye movement.

6. A method, comprising:

receiving first portion of eye movement information of a human eye from one or more eye gaze trackers of a source device;

receiving a second portion of the eye movement information from the eye gaze tracker of a target device;

determining aggregated eye movement information by aggregating the first portion of eye movement information and the second portion of the eye movement information;

extracting a plurality of eye gaze segments based on the aggregated eye movement information;

identifying a origin point for the eye gaze segments based on the first portion of the eye movement information;

identifying a termination point for the eye gaze segments based on the second portion of the eye movement information;

analyzing the plurality of eye gaze segments to determine whether at least one of the plurality of eye gaze segments is the data unit transfer to transfer a data unit from the source device to a target device based on at least one factor, the at least one factor comprising the termination point being a point outside of a boundary of a graphical user interface (GUI) view of the source device;

establishing a data connection between the source and target devices in response to the data unit transfer request; and

transferring the data unit from the source device to the target device over the data connection.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising mapping an origin point to a GUI element in a GUI view presented on a display for the source device, the GUI element representing a data unit stored in a memory unit.

8. The method of claim 6, comprising identifying a termination point for the eye gaze segment based on the eye movement information.

9. The method of claim 6, comprising mapping the termination point to the target device.

10. The method of claim 6, the at least one factor comprising a speed of eye movement.

11. An apparatus, comprising:

a transceiver;

a processor circuit coupled to the transceiver; and

a memory unit coupled to the processor circuit, the memory unit to store a gaze interface application and one or more data units, the gaze interface application operative on the processor circuit to manage data unit transfer operations based on eye movements of a human user, the gaze interface application comprising;

a gaze interpreter component operative to;

receive a first portion of the eye movement information from an eye gaze tracker of a source device, and a second portion of the eye movement information from an eye gaze tracker of a target device,

determine aggregated eye movement information by aggregating the first portion of eye movement information and the second portion of the eye movement information,

extract a plurality of eye gaze segments based on the aggregated eye movement information,

identity an origin point for the eye segments based on the first portion of eye movement information;

identity an termination point for the eye segments based on the second portion of eye movement information;

analyze the plurality of eye gaze segments to determine whether at least one of the plurality of eye gaze segments is the data unit transfer to transfer a data unit from the source device to a target device based on at least one factor, the at least one factor comprising a termination point of the eye gaze segment being a point outside of a boundary of a graphical user interface (GUI) view of the source device;

a data connection component operative to establish a data connection between the source and target devices using the transceiver in response to the data unit transfer request; and

a data transfer component operative to send the data unit from the source device to the target device over the data connection.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, comprising a display coupled to the processor circuit, the display to present a GUI view and one or more GUI elements representing the one or more data units stored in the memory unit.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, the gaze interpreter component operative to map an origin point to a GUI element in a GUI view presented on a display for the source device, the GUI element representing a data unit stored in the memory unit.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, the gaze interpreter component operative to map a termination point to the target device.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, the gaze interpreter component operative to receive the eye movement information from an eye gaze tracker of the target device.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, comprising an eye gaze tracker operative to detect eye movements of the human user, the eye gaze tracker comprising:

a light source operative to generate light beams towards eyes of the human user;

a video camera to record images of the eyes, the images including a virtual image of the light source and an illuminated pupil caused by reflection of the light beams from a cornea of each eye; and

a gaze analyzer component coupled to the video camera, the gaze analyzer component operative to analyze direction and distance of movement of the eyes based on the virtual images and the illuminated pupils.