alea technologies
Great Fun with Gaze-Interaction
Public demonstration of IG-30 system.
New web page goes online.
IntelliGaze prototype debuts at COGAIN meeting.
The IntelliGazeTM prototype system has been successfully demonstrated at the annual COGAIN meeting in Leicester, UK 3-4 September 2007.
The IG-30 system is the first commercial European eye tracking system that has been design from the ground up with an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) application in mind. Requirements regarding robustness, modularity, accuracy and cost efficiency have been set with the goal of establishing this system as a widely-used communication device.
An camera system captures the users head image under infrared illumination, which makes the imaging independent of background or ambient illumination.
The image processing software fully automatically locates the head and extracts facial features and eye-regions. The pupil movement is measured with highest sub-pixel accuracy. Facial features are used to locate the head in a 3D coordinate system in respect to the monitor.
Using a geometrical model of the eye which needs to be calibrated to the users eye properties once, the gaze angle can be determined in successive images. By using the 3D head/eye position, the gaze location on the monitor can be determined.
Until recently, eye tracking systems in general where only able to capture eye movements precisely when the head was fixated or had only very limited working range. Recent developments in camera and tracking technology enable modern systems to record users gaze locations with highest precision even under natural head-movements.
With the IG-30 system, eye movements can be tracked in a volume that is equivalent to the size of a monitor screen in 50-70cm distance. This industry leading working range, coupled with the highest temporal tracking rate for a gaze input device make the IG-30 system the best adapted gaze interaction system for real-world application today.
Glasses - In practice about 80% of typical correction glasses are known to work without problems. Like for all video based eye tracking systems, users wearing classes of unknown properties pose a challenge to the image processing system: optical distortions as well as reflections on the surfaces can limit the accuracy or prevent tracking at all.
Due to it's optical design and its very robust image processing algorithms, the IG-30 system is extremely robust and accurate even with users wearing glasses. Significant development and testing effort has been spent to make the system as tolerant as possible.
If problems with individual users should occur, the system will notify the operator through the Tracking Status Monitor. In most cases, a slight adjustment of the subject's head-positions can significantly improve the results.
Contact Lenses - contact lenses pose a similar challenge to glasses. Most users wearing contact lenses can be easily calibrated and tracked.
Possibly lower image contrast of certain eye colors does not prevent successful tracking.
Unlike some eye tracking systems, the IntelliGaze technology does not rely on the 'bright-pupil' effect for successful tracking, but instead uses a hybrid approach of tracking several alternative features, which during intensive testing have proven to allow very robust tracking under varying conditions.
Sunlight / Ambient Infrared Light - while the IntelliGazeTM technology has been designed for indoor use, several design parameters make it quite robust to infrared artifacts that would otherwise influence the image processing results. For optimum robustness, room lights with high infrared, like halogen bulbs, should be avoided.
The video below shows the excellent accuracy of the IG-30 remote eye tracking system under large head-movements. The green cross represents the current gaze location.
