Detection of Gaze Direction for the Hearing-impaired in the Intelligent Space

The Human-Computer Interaction(HCI) is a study of the method for interaction between human and computers that merges the ergonomics and the information technology. The intelligent space, which is a part of the HCI, is an important area to provide effective user interface for the disabled, who are alienated from the information-oriented society. In the intelligent space for the disabled, the method supporting information depends on types of disability. In this paper, we only support the hearing-impaired. It is material to the gaze direction detection method because it is very efficient information provide method to present information on gazing direction point, except for the information provide location perception method through directly contact with the hearing-impaired. We proposed the gaze direction detection method must be necessary in order to provide the residence life application to the hearing-impaired like this. The proposed method detects the region of the user from multi-view camera images, generates candidates for directions of gaze for horizontal and vertical from each camera, and calculates the gaze direction of the user through the comparison with the size of each candidate. In experimental results, the proposed method showed high detection rate with gaze direction and foot sensing rate with user's position, and showed the performance possibility of the scenario for the disabled.