Advanced eye tracking system to measure coordinated movements of eye and head

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12129
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Kansei informatics
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (2017-2018); Kyoto University (2015-2016)
• Principal Investigator: Kawano Kenji 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 情報・人間工学領域, 客員研究員 (40134530)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 松田 圭司 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, 情報・人間工学領域, 主任研究員 (50358024)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 眼球運動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We advanced our eye tracking system and developed an eye-and-head tracking system that has adopted a wide-field, hi-resolution, hi-frame-rate USB-3.0 digital camera. The infrared light illuminates both eyes, and the black image of the pupil and corneal reflection of each eye are captured by the camera. The centers of the pupil and the corneal reflection are calculated and tracked over time. To measure the head movement simultaneously, we attached two LEDs on the top of the helmet and adopted the same video-capture system as for measuring eye movements.
We developed a passive calibration method which can be used on marmosets. A visual image, which attracts the animal's attention, is displayed and moved, leading the animal to track it. The comparison between the estimated gaze vectors relative to the camera and the corresponding visual angles of the visual image relative to the eye leads to a function that transforms the gaze vector in camera coordinates to the precise eye position.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で開発した高精度の頭部ー眼球運動計測システムを用いることで、実世界環境の中での視覚情報処理の理解が進むと考えられる。また、訓練のできない動物や実験者の指示/説明を理解できない幼児、認知症の高齢者等からも精度の高い眼球運動の計測が可能な眼球運動計測システムは幅広い分野のユーザーのニーズに応え、行動解析の分野に貢献すると考えられる。