EyeDetectionandTracking:

APlatformForNovelComputerInterfaces

BryantTan(arctanb@stanford.edu)
MaxPraglin(mpraglin@stanford.edu)

Ourlongtermgoalforthisprojectistodeveloparobusteyedetectionandtrackingplatformthat
wouldallowuniqueinterfacesforacomputerequippedwithawebcam.

ForourEE368endofquarterproject,however,weplantodevelopaMATLABapplicationthat
canperformthefollowingtasksonafixedhighresolutionimagewithcontrolledlighting
conditions:

1.Accuratelyrecognizelocationsofimportantfacialfeatures,namelypupils/irises,nose,lips.
2.Estimategazeanglebasedontherelativepositionsandshapesoftheabovefacial
features.Ouraimistodetectgazewithsufficientaccuracytobeabletocontrola
computerinterface.
3.Recognizewhethereacheyeisopen.

Oncethecorefunctionalityaboveisaccomplished,wewouldattempttomakeimprovements
thatwillallowforamorerobustandperformantplatform,including:
Lowresolutionimages
Unevenorlowlighting
MotionandGaussianblur
Obstructions,suchasglasses
Extractinginformationaboutuserintentfromgesturesandblinking
Operationonlowpowercomputingplatforms(whichcouldenablethistorunquicklyona
mobiledevicesinterface)

Priorwork(muchofwhichisdescribedinthebelowreferences)includestechniquessuchas:
Determiningeyepositionrelativetootherfacialfeatures,thusestimatinggaze.Thiscould
beapromisingtechniqueforus.[1]
Inspecttheshapeoftheiristoestimategazeanglebasedontheassumptionthattheiris
underwentarotationaltransform.Thistechniquerequireshighresolutionimagesthata
webcammightnotbeabletoprovide.[2]
UseoftheHoughtransformtodetectcircularirises.[3]
Useofaneuralnetworktolocalizeeyes,followedbyameanshiftalgorithmtodetect
gazechanges.[4]

AndroidDevice?

Nowethinktheapplicationsforoursoftwarearebettersuitedtolargedisplayswith
webcamstylecameras.

References

[1]A.C.Varchmin,R.Rae,andH.Ritter:ImageBasedRecognitionofGazeDirectionUsing
AdaptiveMethods.InAGNeuroinformatik,1997.[Link]

[2]J.G.Wang,E.Sung,R.Venkateswarlu:EyeGazeEstimationfromaSingleImageofOne
Eye.InIEEEComputerVision,2003.[Link]

[3]Y.Ito,W.Ohyama,T.Wakabayashi,andF.Kimura:DetectionofEyesbyCircularHough
TransformandHistogramofGradient.In21stInternationalConferenceonPatternRecognition.
Tsukuba,Japan,2012.[Link]

[4]E.Y.imandS.K.Kang:EyeTrackingUsingNeuralNetworkandMeanShift.
SpringerVerlag,Berlin,Heidelberg,2006.[Link]