Enhanced Eyetracker for Reliable Real-Time Performance

LC Technologies, Inc. has developed and is marketing a state-of-the-art eyetracking system called the Eyegaze Systems. The Eyegaze System monitors a person's eye with a video camera and calculates the position of his gazepoint on a computer monitor in real time at a 60 Hz rate. Today's video eyetrackers must generally be used in rooms without daylight or incandescent light. Ambient infrared light from the sun or incandescent bulbs competes with the controlled lighting from the eyetracker and degrades the eyetracker performance. Ambient infrared light is the chief cause for eyetrackers to lose track of the eye. This proposed research is for a critical improvement to eyetracking technology: an increased tolerance to ambient infrared lighting. There are two general approaches to increasing an eyetracker's tolerance to ambient infrared light. The first involves advancing the optical hardware to increase the signal-to-noise ration in the captured image of the eye. The second involves building more sophisticated image processing software to recognize and measure the pupil and corneal reflection in cluttered images. LC Technologies will pursue both avenues during Phase I and II of this project.