Visible-spectrum remote eye tracker for gaze communication

Abstract

Many approaches have been proposed to create an eye tracker based on visible-spectrum. These efforts provide a possibility to create inexpensive eye tracker capable to operate outdoor. Although the resulted tracking accuracy is acceptable for a visible-spectrum head-mounted eye tracker, there are many limitations of these approaches to create a remote eye tracker. In this study, we propose a high-accuracy remote eye tracker that uses visible-spectrum imaging and several gaze communication interfaces suited to the tracker. The gaze communication interfaces are designed to assist people with motor disability. Our results show that the proposed eye tracker achieved an average accuracy of 0.77° and a frame rate of 28 fps with a personal computer. With a tablet device, the proposed eye tracker achieved an average accuracy of 0.82° and a frame rate of 25 fps. The proposed gaze communication interfaces enable users to type a complete sentence containing eleven Japanese characters in about a minute.