A model-based gaze tracking system

Abstract

In this paper we present a non-intrusive model-based gaze tracking system. The system estimates the 3D pose of a user's head by tracking as few as six facial feature points. The system locates a human face using a statistical color model without any mark on the face and then traces the facial features, such as eyes, nostrils and lip corners. A full perspective model is employed to map these feature points onto the 3D pose. Several techniques have been developed to track the features points and recover from failure. We currently achieve a frame rate of 15+ frames per second using an HP 9000 workstation with a frame grabber and a Canon VC-C1 camera. The application of the system has been demonstrated by a gaze-driven panorama image viewer. The potential applications of the system include multimodal interfaces, virtual reality and video-teleconferencing.