Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Open-source gaze tracker awarded Research Pearls of ITU Copenhagen
"The Open-Source ITU Gaze Tracker"
Abstract:
Gaze tracking offers them the possibility of interacting with a computer by just using eye movements, thereby making users more independent. However, some people (for example users with a severe disability) are excluded from access to gaze interaction due to the high prices of commercial systems (above 10.000€). Gaze tracking systems built from low-cost and off-the-shelf components have the potential of facilitating access to the technology and bring prices down.
The ITU Gaze Tracker is an off-the-shelf system that uses an inexpensive web cam or a video camera to track the user’s eye. It is free and open-source, offering users the possibility of trying out gaze interaction technology for a cost as low as 20€, and to adapt and extend the software to suit specific needs.
In this talk we will present the open-source ITU Gaze Tracker and show the different scenarios in which the system has been used and evaluated.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Low-cost eye tracking and pong gaming from Imperial College London
"We built an eyetracking system using mass-marketed off-the shelf components at 1/1000 of that cost, i.e. for less then 30 GBP. Once we made such a system that cheap we started thinking of it as a user interface for everyday use for impaired people.. The project was enable by realising that certain mass-marketed web cameras for video game consoles offer impressive performance approaching that of much more expensive research grade cameras.
"From this starting point research in our group has focussed on two parts so far:
1. The TED software, which is composed of two components which can run on two different computers (connected by wireless internet) or run on the same computer. The first component is the TED server (Linux-based) which interfaces directly with the cameras and processes the high-speed video feed and makes the data available (over the internet) to the client software. The client forms the second components, it is written in Java (i.e. it runs on any computer, Windows, Mac, Unix, ...) and provides the Mouse-control-via-eye-movements, the “Pong” video game as well as configuration and calibration functions.
This two part solution allows the cameras to be connected to a cost-effective netbook (e.g. on a wheel chair) and allow control of other computers over the internet (e.g. in the living room, office and kitchen). This software suite, as well as part of the low-level camera driver was implemented by Ian Beer, Aaron Berk, Oliver Rogers and Timothy Treglown, for their undergraduate project in the lab.
Note:the “Pong” video game has a two player mode, allowing two people to play against each other using two eye-trackers or eye-tracker vs keyboard. It is very easy to use, just look where you want the pong paddle to move...
2. The camera-spectacles (visible in most press photos), as well as a two-camera software (Windows-based) able to track eye-movements in 3D (i.e. direction and distance) for wheelchair control. These have been build and developed by William Abbott (Dept. of Bioengineering)."
Further reading:
The Engineer: Eye-movement game targets disabled
Engadget (German): Neurotechnologie: Pong mit Augenblinzeln gespielt in London
Friday, March 19, 2010
In the Eye of the Beholder: A Survey of Models for Eyes and Gaze (Hansen&Ji, 2010)
Abstract
"Despite active research and significant progress in the last 30 years, eye detection and tracking remains challenging due to the individuality of eyes, occlusion, variability in scale, location, and light conditions. Data on eye location and details of eye movements have numerous applications and are essential in face detection, biometric identification, and particular human-computer interaction tasks. This paper reviews current progress and state of the art in video-based eye detection and tracking in order to identify promising techniques as well as issues to be further addressed. We present a detailed review of recent eye models and techniques for eye detection and tracking. We also survey methods for gaze estimation and compare them based on their geometric properties and reported accuracies. This review shows that, despite their apparent simplicity, the development of a general eye detection technique involves addressing many challenges, requires further theoretical developments, and is consequently of interest to many other domains problems in computer vision and beyond."
- Dan Witzner Hansen, Qiang Ji, "In the Eye of the Beholder: A Survey of Models for Eyes and Gaze," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 478-500, Jan. 2010, doi:10.1109/TPAMI.2009.30. Download as PDF.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Mobile Dias Eye Tracker
"This is a low cost mobile eye tracker with a wireless and Light weight head mounted hardware. This system gathers eye movements and estimates the point of gaze during the performance of daily tasks. It can let you to assess the visual behavior of the person online and in real-time when he is doing a specific task. A mobile eye tracker has a wide variety of applications in several fields such as human factors, market research, consumer shopping behavior, sports, driving, reading, safety & training. "
Friday, December 11, 2009
PhD Defense: Off-the-Shelf Gaze Interaction
Update: The thesis is now available as PDF, 179 pages, 3.6MB.
Abstract of the thesis:
People with severe motor-skill disabilities are often unable to use standard input devices such as a mouse or a keyboard to control a computer and they are, therefore, in strong need for alternative input devices. Gaze tracking offers them the possibility to use the movements of their eyes to interact with a computer, thereby making them more independent. A big effort has been put toward improving the robustness and accuracy of the technology, and many commercial systems are nowadays available in the market.
Despite the great improvements that gaze tracking systems have undergone in the last years, high prices have prevented gaze interaction from becoming mainstream. The use of specialized hardware, such as industrial cameras or infrared light sources, increases the accuracy of the systems, but also the price, which prevents many potential users from having access to the technology. Furthermore, the different components are often required to be placed in specific locations, or are built into the monitor, thus decreasing the flexibility of the setup.
Gaze tracking systems built from low-cost and off-the-shelf components have the potential to facilitate access to the technology and bring the prices down. Such systems are often more flexible, as the components can be placed in different locations, but also less robust, due to the lack of control over the hardware setup and the lower quality of the components compared to commercial systems.
The work developed for this thesis deals with some of the challenges introduced by the use of low-cost and off-the-shelf components for gaze interaction. The main contributions are:
- Development and performance evaluation of the ITU Gaze Tracker, an off-the-shelf gaze tracker that uses an inexpensive webcam or video camera to track the user's eye. The software is readily available as open source, offering the possibility to try out gaze interaction for a low price and to analyze, improve and extend the software by modifying the source code.
- A novel gaze estimation method based on homographic mappings between planes. No knowledge about the hardware configuration is required, allowing for a flexible setup where camera and light sources can be placed at any location.
- A novel algorithm to detect the type of movement that the eye is performing, i.e. fixation, saccade or smooth pursuit. The algorithm is based on eye velocity and movement pattern, and allows to smooth the signal appropriately for each kind of movement to remove jitter due to noise while maximizing responsiveness.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Remote tracker and 6DOF using a webcam
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Nokia near-eye display gaze interaction update
Friday, September 18, 2009
The EyeWriter project
The Eyewriter from Evan Roth on Vimeo.
eyewriter tracking software walkthrough from thesystemis on Vimeo.
More information is found at http://fffff.at/eyewriter/
Thursday, August 20, 2009
A geometric approach to remote eye tracking (Villanueva et al, 2009)
Abstract
"This paper presents a principled analysis of various combinations of image features to determine their suitability for remote eye tracking. It begins by reviewing the basic theory underlying the connection between eye image and gaze direction. Then a set of approaches is proposed based on different combinations of well-known features and their behaviour is valuated, taking into account various additional criteria such as free head movement, and minimum hardware and calibration requirements. The paper proposes a final method based on multiple glints and the pupil centre; the method is evaluated experimentally. Future trends in eye tracking technology are also discussed."
The algorithms were implemented in C++ running on a Windows PC equipped with a Pentium 4 processor at 3 GHz and 1 GB of Ram. The camera of choice delivers 15 frames per second at 1280 x 1024. Optimal distance from screen is 60 cm which is rather typical for remote eye trackers. This provides a track-box volume of 20 x 20 x 20 cm. Within this area the algorithms produce an average accuracy of 1.57 degrees. A 1 degree accuracy may be achieved obtained if the head is the same position as it was during calibration. Moving the head parallel to the monitor plane increases error by 0.2 - 0.4 deg. while moving closer or further away introduces a larger error between 1-1.5 degrees (mainly due to camera focus range). Note that no temporal filtering was used in the reporting. All-in-all these results are not so far from what typical remote systems produce.
The limitation of 15 fps stems from the frame rate of the camera, the software itself is able to process +50 images per second on the specified machine. Leaving it to our imagination what frame rates may be achieved with a fast Intel Core i7 processor with four cores.
- A. Villanueva, G. Daunys, D. Hansen, M. Böhme, R. Cabeza, A. Meyer, and E. Barth, "A geometric approach to remote eye tracking," Universal Access in the Information Society. [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10209-009-0149-0
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
ALS Society of British Columbia announces Engineering Design Awards (Canadian students only)
Project ideas:
- Low-cost eye tracker
- Issue: Current commercial eye-gaze tracking systems cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. The high cost of eye-gaze trackers prevents potential users from accessing eye- gaze tracking tools. The hardware components required for eye-gaze tracking do not justify the price and a lower-cost alternative is desirable. Webcams may be used for low-cost imaging, along with simple infrared diodes for system lighting. Alternatively, visible light systems may also be investigated. Opensource eye-gaze tracking software is also available. (ed: ITU GazeTracker, OpenEyes, Track Eye, OpenGazer and MyEye (free, no source)
- Goal: The goal of this design project is to develop a low-cost and usable eye-gaze tracking system based on simple commercial-of-the-shelf hardware.
- Deliverables: A working prototype of a functional, low-cost (< $200), eye-gaze tracking system.
- Issue: Current commercial eye-gaze tracking systems cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars. The high cost of eye-gaze trackers prevents potential users from accessing eye- gaze tracking tools. The hardware components required for eye-gaze tracking do not justify the price and a lower-cost alternative is desirable. Webcams may be used for low-cost imaging, along with simple infrared diodes for system lighting. Alternatively, visible light systems may also be investigated. Opensource eye-gaze tracking software is also available. (ed: ITU GazeTracker, OpenEyes, Track Eye, OpenGazer and MyEye (free, no source)
- Eye-glasses compensation
- Deliverables: A working prototype of a functional, low-cost (< $200), eye-gaze tracking system
- Issue: The use of eye-glasses can cause considerable problems in eye-gaze tracking. The issue stems from reflections off the eye-glasses due to the use of controlled infrared lighting (on and off axis light sources) used to highlight features of the face. The key features of interest are the pupils and glints (or reflections of the surface of the cornea). Incorrectly identifying the pupils and glints then results in invalid estimation of the point-of-gaze.
- Goal: The goal of this design project is to develop techniques for either: 1) avoiding image corruption with eye-glasses on a commercial eye-gaze tracker, or 2) developing a controlled lighting scheme to ensure valid pupil and glints identification are identified in the presence of eye-glasses.
- Deliverables: Two forms of deliverables are possible: 1) A working prototype illustrating functional eye-gaze tracking in the presence of eye-glasses with a commercial eye-gaze tracker, or 2) A working prototype illustrating accurate real-time identification of the pupil and glints using controlled infrared lighting (on and off axis light sources) in the presence of eye-glasses.
- Innovative selection with ALS and eye gaze
- Issue: As mobility steadily decreases in the more advanced stages of ALS, alternative techniques for selection are required. Current solutions include head switches, sip and puff switches and dwell time activation depending on the degree of mobility loss to name a few. The use of dwell time requires no mobility other than eye motion, however, this technique suffers from ‘lag’ in that the user must wait the dwell time duration for each selection, as well as the ‘midas touch’ problem in which unintended selection if the gaze point is stationary for too long.
- Goal: The goal of this design project is to develop a technique for improved selection with eye-gaze for individuals with only eye-motion available. Possible solutions may involve novel HCI designs for interaction, including various adaptive and predictive technologies, the consideration of contextual cues, and the introduction of ancillary inputs, such as EMG, EEG.
- Deliverables: A working prototype illustrating eye-motion only selection with a commercial eye-gaze tracking system.
- Novel and valuable eye-gaze tracking applications and application enhancements
- Issue: To date, relatively few gaze-tracking applications have been developed. These include relatively simplistic applications such as the tedious typing of words, and even in such systems, little is done to ease the effort required, e.g., systems typically do not allow for the saving and reuse of words and sentences.
- Goal: The goal of this design project is to develop one or more novel applications or application enhancements that take gaze as input, and that provide new efficiencies or capabilities that could significantly improve the quality of life of those living with ALS.
- Deliverables: A working prototype illustrating one or more novel applications that take eye-motion as an input. The prototype must be developed and implemented to the extent that an evaluation of the potential efficiencies and/or reductions in effort can be evaluated by persons living with ALS and others on an evaluation panel.
See the Project Ideas for more information. For contact information see page two of the announcement.
Friday, July 31, 2009
SMI RED 250!
Today SMI announced the new RED250 which, as the name suggests, has an impressive 250Hz sampling rate. It has an accuracy of 0.5 degrees or below (typ.), less than 10 ms. latency and operates within 60-80 cm head distance. The track-box is 40x40 cm at 70cm distance and will recover tracking faster than the previous model. No details on pricing yet but top of the line performance never comes cheap. Get the flyer as pdf.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
The Dias Eye Tracker (Mardanbeigi, 2009)
Monday, April 27, 2009
A brief users guide to the ITU Gaze Tracker
- Download the pdf document (0.6Mb)
Friday, April 17, 2009
IDG Interview with Javier San Agustin
Hopefully, ideas and contributions to platform through the community makes the platform take off. Considering the initial release to be a Beta version, there are of course additional improvements to make. Additional cameras needs to be verified and bugs in code to be handled.
If you experience any issues or have ideas for improvements please post at http://forum.gazegroup.org
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Introducing the ITU GazeTracker
- Supports head mounted and remote setups
- Tracks both pupil and glints
- Supports a wide variety of camera devices
- Configurable calibration
- Eye-mouse capabilities
- UDPServer broadcasting gaze data
- Full source code provided
We encourage users and developers to test our software with their cameras and provide feedback so we can continue development. The ITU Gaze Tracker is released under the GLP3 open source license and the full source code is hosted at sourceforge. It´s written in C# using Emgu OpenCV wrapper for C++ image processing. (Microsoft .Net 3.5 needed) Once the tracker has been started it can be configured to broadcast gaze data via the UDP protocol which makes it easy to pick up in your own applications. We provide a sample implementation on a client in C#.
Visit the ITU GazeGroup to download the software package. Please get in touch with us at http://forum.gazegroup.org
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Argentinian myEye released
The system requirements are modest,
- CPU: 1.5 Ghz or higher
- RAM: 256 DDR RAM or higher (Recommendation 512 RAM)
- Space: at least 100MB hard disk space.
- Camera: 640x480 capture resolution or higher. (At least 30fps)
- O.S.: Microsoft Windows XP SP2
I am happy to see that the project came through, kudos for releasing under Creative Commons.
Keep an eye open for the ITU gaze interaction platform that will be released in conjunction with CHI09 in early April.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Wearable EOG Goggles: Eye-Based Interaction in Everyday Environments
"We want to introduce the paradigm of visual perception and investigations on eye movements as new methods to implement novel and complement current context-aware systems. Therefore, we will investigate the potential but also possible limitations of using eye movements to perform context and activity recognition in wearable settings. Besides recognizing individual activities another focus will be put on long-term eye movement analysis." More information.
Recently Andreas got a paper accepted for the CHI 2009 conference in Boston (April 4-9th) where the system will be demonstrated during the interactivity session. Andreas and the team at ETH are planning to investigate attentive user interfaces (AUI) in mobile settings using wearable systems, such as the prototype demonstrated in the video below.
View on YouTube
SMI gets the International Forum Design Award
"The unobtrusive yet elegant design for the stand-alone as well as for the monitor-attached configuration of the eye tracking system convinced the jury. "
The award will be presented at the first day of CeBIT (3rd of March) in Hanover. The system will also be on display for those of you who are attending CeBIT. More information on the International Forum Award.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
The Argentinian Eye Mouse software released (Amaro & Ponieman)
View on YouTube