Method and device for calibration-free gaze estimation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016005176-A1
Application number	US-201414769814-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 20, 2014
Priority date	Feb 27, 2013
Publication date	Jan 7, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of gaze estimation. As to determine the position of the gaze without calibrating the system used for determining the gaze, the method comprises: detecting at least a location of the centre of at least an eye on at least an eye image of a viewer watching at least a video image displayed on a screen; determining at least a first position of the gaze of the viewer on the screen by using the at least a detected location of the centre of the at least an eye and a mapping function based on centre-bias property of human gaze distribution. The invention also relates to a device configured for estimating the gaze.

First claim

1 . A method of gaze estimation, the method comprising:
detecting at least a location of the centre of at least an eye on at least an eye image of a viewer watching at least a video image displayed on a screen; determining at least a first position of the gaze of the viewer on said screen by using the at least a detected location of the centre of the at least an eye and a mapping function based on centre-bias property of human gaze distribution.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the detecting step further comprises:
converting said at least an eye image into at least a heat map; determining first pixels of the at least a heat map having an associated value greater than a first determined threshold value; determining second pixels located in the neighborhood of the first pixels having an associated value greater than a second determined threshold value; computing the at least a location of the centre of the at least an eye as corresponding to a weighted average of the location of the first and second determined pixels.

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the at least a heat map is represented in color space YC b C r as output of the converting.

4 . Method according to claim 2 , wherein said detecting step further comprises a Gaussian filtering of said at least a heat map, the first and second pixels being determined after the Gaussian filtering.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining at least a second position of the gaze of the viewer on said screen according to at least a saliency map associated with the at least a video image; determining at least a third position of the gaze of the viewer on said screen, the at least a third position of the gaze corresponding to a fusion of the at least a first position of the gaze and the at least a second position of the gaze.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least a first position of the gaze is determined by using a particle filtering method and at least another first position of the gaze previously determined in a temporal point of view.

7 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein said at least a third position of the gaze is determined by using a particle filtering method with at least another first position of the gaze and at least another second position of the gaze previously determined in a temporal point of view.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein said at least a first position of the gaze of the viewer is determined by taking into account a movement of the head of the viewer.

9 . A device configured for determining the gaze of a viewer, the device comprising at least one processor configured for:
detecting a location of the centre of at least an eye on at least an eye image of a viewer watching at least a video image displayed on a screen, the at least an eye image comprising a representation of the at least an eye; determining at least a first position of the gaze of the viewer on said screen by using the detected location of the centre of the at least an eye and a mapping function based on centre-bias property of human gaze distribution.

10 . The device according to claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:
converting said at least an eye image into at least a heat map; determining first pixels of the at least a heat map having an associated value greater than a first determined threshold value; determining second pixels located in the neighborhood of the first pixels having an associated value greater than a second determined threshold value; computing the at least a location of the centre of the at least an eye as corresponding to a weighted average of the location of the first and second determined pixels.

11 . The device according to claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured for filtering said at least a heat map with a Gaussian filter.

12 . The device according to claim 9 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured for:
determining at least a second position of the gaze of the viewer on said screen according to at least a saliency map associated with the at least a video image; determining at least a third position of the gaze of the viewer on said screen, the at least a third position of the gaze corresponding to a fusion of the at least a first position of the gaze and the at least a second position of the gaze.

13 . (canceled)

14 . The device according to claim 9 , wherein said at least one processor is further configured for detecting a movement of the head of the viewer.

15 . A computer program product, characterized in that it comprises instructions of program code for executing steps of the method according to one of claims 1 to 8 , when said program is executed on a computer.

16 . The device according to claim 10 , wherein the at least a heat map is represented in color space YCbCr as output of the converting.

17 . The device according to claim 9 , wherein the at least a first position of the gaze is determined by using a particle filtering method and at least another first position of the gaze previously determined in a temporal point of view.

18 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein said at least a third position of the gaze is determined by using a particle filtering method with at least another first position of the gaze and at least another second position of the gaze previously determined in a temporal point of view.

Assignees

• Thomson Licensing

Inventors

• Nguyen Phi Bang
• Fleureau Julien
• Chamaret Christel
• Guillotel Philippe

Classifications

• G06F3/013 Primary

  Eye tracking input arrangements (G06F3/015 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06T7/33

  using feature-based methods · CPC title

• G06V10/462

  Salient features, e.g. scale invariant feature transforms [SIFT] · CPC title

• G06T2207/30201

  Face · CPC title

• G06T2207/10024

  Color image · CPC title