3D Gaze Point Selection

Also known as Pupil-centre-distance gaze depth, Vergence-based 3D gaze selection

Select objects at different depths on a stereo display by gaze alone: the eye tracker estimates both where you look and how far, from the distance between your two pupils.

How it works

Gaze direction is estimated from the pupil and two corneal glints of one eye; gaze depth from the pupil-centre distance (PCD) between both eyes, which grows as the eyes converge less on farther points, after a short per-user calibration. The intersection of the gaze direction with the estimated depth plane gives a 3D gaze point; looking at an object for about 1 s selects it. An ultrasonic sensor compensates small head movements. Built with a single camera and IR LEDs for a parallax-barrier autostereoscopic display, distinguishing four depth levels (0.63–2.6 m); in a dart-and-arrow demo, gaze picked the arrow and then a point on the dart. Selection accuracy within 1 s was at least 93% over 9 regions x 4 depths (3 users).

Papers

Jeongseok Ki, Yong-Moo Kwon (2008). 3D Gaze Estimation and Interaction. 3DTV Conference: The True Vision – Capture, Transmission and Display of 3D Video (3DTV-CON 2008), pp. 373–376 doi:10.1109/3DTV.2008.4547886