Display control device and method detecting eye position of a user

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9164582-B2
Application number	US-201213982189-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2012
Priority date	Feb 14, 2011
Publication date	Oct 20, 2015
Grant date	Oct 20, 2015

Abstract

A display control device 1 is provided, which suppresses a display content from being scrolled when a viewer does not consciously pay attention to the display content. The display control device 1 includes: a display unit 16 ; an image pickup unit 11 that detects an eye position of a viewer from a taken image of the viewer; an attention state determination unit 12 that determines an attention state to the display content, based on movement of the detected viewer's eye position; a gaze position specifying unit 14 that specifies a gaze position on the display content, based on the detected viewer's eye position and the display content; and a display control unit 15 that causes the display unit 16 to display a non-displayed portion of displayed program information, based on the determined attention state and the specified gaze position, when the viewer pays attention to the non-displayed portion.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A display control device, comprising:
a display unit that displays, on a display screen, a display content, and non-display information indicating that the display content has a non-displayed portion;
an image pickup unit that takes an image of a viewer, and detects an eye position of the viewer from the taken image of the viewer;
an attention state determination unit that determines an attention state to the display content on the display screen, based on movement of the detected viewer's eye position;
a gaze position specifying unit that specifies a gaze position on the display content, based on the detected viewer's eye position, and the display content on the display screen; and
a display control unit that causes the display unit to display the non-displayed portion, in a case where the attention state determination unit has determined the attention state to the display content on the display screen, and the display control unit has determined that the non-display information is gazed, based on the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit, wherein
the display content includes character strings,
the attention state determination unit further determines an attention state to the character strings on the display screen, based on movement of the detected viewer's eye position,
the display control unit causes the display unit to display the non-displayed portion, in a case where the attention state determination unit has determined both the attention state to the display content on the display screen and the attention state to the character strings on the display screen, and the display control unit has determined that the non-display information is gazed, based on the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit, and
when the character strings of the display content are written in the horizontal direction,
the attention state determination unit determines the attention state to the character strings on the display screen, in a case where the attention state to the display content is continued, and the amount of movement of the detected viewer's eye position in the horizontal direction within a predetermined time period is equal to or larger than a first threshold, and the amount of movement of the detected viewer's eye position in the vertical direction within the predetermined time period is equal to or smaller than a second threshold.

2. The display control device according to claim 1 , wherein
the non-display information indicating that the display content has a non-displayed portion is a graphical user interface (GUI) object that scrolls the display content, and
the display control unit operates the GUI object based on movement of the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit, and causes the display unit to display the non-displayed portion, in a case where the attention state determination unit has determined an attention state to the GUI object, and the display control unit has determined that the GUI. object is gazed, based on the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit.

3. The display control device according to claim 1 , wherein
the display control unit displays the non-displayed portion together with the display content that has already been displayed on the display screen.

4. The display control device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a reception unit that receives program information as the display content.

5. A display control device, comprising:
a display unit that displays, on a display screen, a display content, and non-display information indicating that the display content has a non-displayed portion;
an image pickup unit that takes an image of a viewer, and detects an eye position of the viewer from the taken image of the viewer;
an attention state determination unit that determines an attention state to the display content on the display screen, based on movement of the detected viewer's eye position;
a gaze position specifying unit that specifies a gaze position on the display content, based on the detected viewer's eye position, and the display content on the display screen; and
a display control unit that causes the display unit to display the non-displayed portion, in a case where the attention state determination unit has determined the attention state to the display content on the display screen, and the display control unit has determined that the non-display information is gazed, based on the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit, wherein
the display content includes character strings,
the display control device further includes a matching detection unit that detects matching between the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit and the position of each character included in the character strings, and calculates a matching ratio which is a ratio of the number of characters matched with the gaze position to the number of characters included in the character strings, and
in a case where the attention state determination unit has determined the attention state to the display content on the display screen, and the display control unit has determined that the non-display information is gazed, based on the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit, the display control unit causes the display unit to display the non-displayed portion when the display control unit has further determined that the matching ratio calculated by the matching detection unit exceeds a threshold.

6. The display control device according to claim 5 , wherein
the non-display information indicating that the display content has a non-displayed portion is a graphical user interface (GUI) object that scrolls the display content, and
the display control unit operates the GUI object based on movement of the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit, and causes the display unit to display the non-displayed portion, in a case where the attention state determination unit has determined an attention state to the GUI object, and the display control unit has determined that the GUI object is gazed, based on the gaze position specified by the gaze position specifying unit.

7. The display control device according to claim 5 , wherein the display control unit displays the non-displayed portion together with the display content that has already been displayed on the display screen.

8. The display control device according to claim 5 , further comprising:
a reception unit that receives program information as the display content.

9. A display control method, comprising:
a display step of displaying, on a display screen, a display content, and non-display information indicating that the display content has a non-displayed portion;
an eye position detection step of taking an image of a viewer, and detecting an eye position of the viewer from the image of the viewer;
an attention state determination step of determining an attention state to the display content on the display screen, based on movement of the detected viewer's eye position;
a gaze position specifying step of specifying a gaze position on the display content, based on the detected viewer's eye position, and the display content on the display screen; and
a display control step of displaying the non-displayed portion, in a case where the attention state to the display content on the display screen has been determined in the attention state determination step, and it has been determined that the non-display information is gazed, based on the gaze position specified in the gaze position specifying step, wherein
the display content includes character strings,
in the attention state

Assignees

• Seki Hirokazu
• Panasonic Ip Man Co Ltd

Inventors

• Seki Hirokazu

Classifications

• H04N21/4821

  using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time · CPC title

• H04N21/4725

  using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots {(details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94)} · CPC title

• G06F3/013 Primary

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

• H04N21/4854

  for modifying image parameters, e.g. image brightness, contrast · CPC title

• G06F3/0485

  Scrolling or panning · CPC title