Robust Head Mounted Wearable Eye Tracking System for Dynamical Calibration

Antonio Lanata,Alberto Greco,Gaetano Valenza,Enzo Pasquale Scilingo

doi:10.16910/jemr.8.5.2

Antonio Lanata, Alberto Greco + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.8.5.2

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Abstract

In this work, a new head mounted eye tracking system is presented. Based on computer vision techniques, the system integrates eye images and head movement, in real time, performing a robust gaze point tracking. Nystagmus movements due to vestibulo-ocular reflex are monitored and integrated. The system proposed here is a strongly improved version of a previous platform called HATCAM, which was robust against changes of illumination conditions. The new version, called HAT-Move, is equipped with accurate inertial motion unit to detect the head movement enabling eye gaze even in dynamical conditions. HAT-Move performance is investigated in a group of healthy subjects in both static and dynamic conditions, i.e. when head is kept still or free to move. Evaluation was performed in terms of amplitude of the angular error between the real coordinates of the fixed points and those computed by the system in two experimental setups, specifically, in laboratory settings and in a 3D virtual reality (VR) scenario. The achieved results showed that HAT-Move is able to achieve eye gaze angular error of about 1 degree along both horizontal and vertical directions

Highlights

Eye Gaze Tracking (EGT) system includes a device able to continuously acquire and follow eye position over time and compute gaze point coordinates in the environment around the subject through an analytical relationship
Even though many current Head Mounted EGTs (HMEGTs) systems are used without any integration of the movement of the head either for image plane orientation nor for the Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex, they are used with partial head movements
This study pointed out that HMEGT systems are strongly affected by head movements

Summary

Introduction

Eye Gaze Tracking (EGT) system includes a device able to continuously acquire and follow eye position over time and compute gaze point coordinates in the environment around the subject through an analytical relationship. Most EGTs are based on the Video-OculoGraphy (VOG) technique, which is a method for tracking eye movements through computer vision techniques used to process eye images (Van der Geest & Frens, 2002). VOG-based EGTs can be classified into two main categories identified by the position of the camera, that is dedicated to acquiring eye images with respect to the user. In laboratory environment remote EGTs are employed They allow a quite precise measure, but impose limitations in the kind of information that can be retrieved. F. Cootes, Taylor, Cooper, & Graham, 1995) to detect the user’s eye allowing for limited head movements. They often require really expensive high definition camera that make remote EGTs

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