System and method for quantifying and mapping visual salience

• US 20060189886A1
• Filed: 02/23/2006
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MindsEye Labs Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: Ami Klin, Warren Jones
• Inventors: Klin, Ami, Jones, Warren
• Granted Patent: US 7,922,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/558
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/113 for determining or recording eye movement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/163 by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4005 for evaluating the sensory system A61B5/12, A61B5/4058 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7246 using correlation, e.g. template matching or determination of similarity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence

Abstract

A system for quantifying and mapping visual salience to a visual stimulus, including a processor, software for receiving data indicative of a group of individual'"'"'s ocular responses to a visual stimulus, software for determining a distribution of visual resources at each of at least two times for each of at least a portion of the individuals. The system further including software for determining and quantifying a group distribution of visual resources at each of the at least two times and software for generating a display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the visual stimulus.

Claims

1. A system for quantifying and mapping visual salience to a dynamic visual stimulus, comprising:

a processor;

software executing on said processor for receiving data indicative of a group of individual'"'"'s ocular responses to a dynamic visual stimulus;

software executing on said processor for determining a distribution of visual resources at each of at least two times for each of at least a portion of the individuals;

software executing on said processor for determining a group distribution of visual resources at each of the at least two times; and

software executing on said processor for generating a display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the dynamic visual stimulus.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said software for determining a distribution of visual resources determines each distribution based on the data and a distribution of biological visual resources.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said software for determining a group distribution of visual resources aggregates the distributions of visual resources at each of the at least two times.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources includes an area of maximal salience at each of the at least two times, each area of maximal salience corresponding to an area of the visual stimulus.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the display includes an extrusion of the areas of maximal salience over time.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein a decrease in area of maximal salience represents a heightened attention to the corresponding area of the visual stimulus.

7. The system according to claim 4, wherein the display includes an attentional funnel based on the areas of maximal salience.

8. The system according to claim 4, wherein the area of maximal salience at each of the at least two times is based on an average of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources at each the at least two times.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display is a continuous display changing over time.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein the display includes at least a portion of the visual stimulus corresponding to each of the at least two times.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the dynamic visual stimulus is video imagery, wherein each of the at least two times corresponds to a different frame of the video imagery.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the dynamic visual stimulus is a live event.

13. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

software executing on said processor for receiving stimulus data,

wherein the display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources includes at least a portion of the stimulus data.

14. A system for quantifying and mapping visual salience to a dynamic visual stimulus, comprising:

a dynamic visual stimulus;

a processor;

software executing on said processor for receiving data indicative of at least one individual'"'"'s ocular response to the dynamic visual stimulus;

software executing on said processor for determining at least one point of regard at each of at least two times based on the data; and

software executing on said processor for generating a display of the at least one individual'"'"'s points of regard to the dynamic visual stimulus over time.

15. The system according to claim 14, further comprising:

a device for tracking movement of at least one eye of the at least one individual.

16. The system according to claim 14,

wherein said software for receiving data receives data indicative of at least two individual'"'"'s ocular response to the dynamic visual stimulus,

wherein said software for determining at least one point of regard determines at least one point of regard for each of the at least two individuals.

17. The system according to claim 16,

wherein the display includes each of the at least two individual'"'"'s points of regard over the at least two times.

18. The system according to claim 14, wherein the display includes at least a portion of the dynamic visual stimulus corresponding to each of the at least two times.

19. The system according to claim 14, further comprising:

software executing on said processor for comparing the at least one individual'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the dynamic visual stimulus to a group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the dynamic visual stimulus.

20. A system for quantifying and mapping visual salience to a static visual stimulus, comprising:

a processor;

software executing on said processor for receiving data indicative of a group of individual'"'"'s ocular responses to a static visual stimulus;

software executing on said processor for determining a distribution of visual resources at each of at least two times for each of at least a portion of the individuals;

software executing on said processor for determining a group distribution of visual resources at each of the at least two times; and

software executing on said processor for generating a three-dimensional display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the static visual stimulus over time.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources includes an area of maximal salience at each of the at least two times, each area of maximal salience corresponding to an area of the static visual stimulus.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the display includes an attentional funnel based on the areas of maximal salience.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein a convergence of the attentional funnel at a particular time represents a heightened attention to the corresponding area of the static visual stimulus at the particular time.

24. A method for quantifying and mapping visual salience to a visual stimulus, comprising the steps of:

receiving data indicative of a group of individual'"'"'s ocular responses to a visual stimulus;

determining a distribution of visual resources at each of at least two times and for each of at least a portion of the individuals of the group;

determining a group distribution of visual resources at each of the at least two times; and

generating a display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the visual stimulus over time.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein said step of generating the display includes mapping the group distribution of visual resources to the visual stimulus.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein the visual stimulus is a video, wherein the mapping includes mapping each of the at least two times to a particular frame of the video.

27. The method according to claim 24, wherein said step of determining a group distribution of visual resources includes aggregating the distributions of visual resources.

28. The method according to claim 24, wherein said step of determining a group distribution of visual resources includes determining an average value of relative salience at each of the at least two times.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein said step of determining a group distribution of visual resources includes determining an area of maximal salience at each of the at least two times based on the average value.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein the display includes the areas of maximal salience extruded over time.

31. The method according to claim 29, wherein the display includes an attentional funnel based on the areas of maximal salience.

32. The method according to claim 24, wherein the received data includes at least two ocular responses per second for each of at least a portion of the individuals of the group.

33. The method according to claim 24, wherein said step of determining a distribution of visual resources including determining a distribution of retinal cells.

34. The method according to claim 24, further comprising the steps of:

receiving subject data indicative of at least one subject'"'"'s ocular responses to the visual stimulus;

determining at least one point of regard at each of the at least two times for each of the at least one subjects based on the subject data, and

generating a display of the at least one subject'"'"'s points of regard over time.

35. The method according to claim 34, further comprising the step of:

comparing the display of the at least one subject'"'"'s points of regard to the display of the group'"'"'s distribution of visual resources to the visual stimulus.

36. The method according to claim 35, wherein said step of comparing includes comparing median values of relative salience of the group over time to the display of the at least one subject'"'"'s points of regard over time.