Robust Eye Detection for Cockpit Access Control Using an Appearance Model and Radial Symmetry Transform under Active near Infrared Illumination

Eye detection is very important for automatic face recognition and gaze tracking. In this paper we propose an algorithm for eye detection under active infrared (IR) illumination, which will be integrated into our facial analysis system for cockpit access control. By making use of the bright pupil effect and a sophisticated thresholding method, the pupil candidates can be effectively located. An appearance model is then used to verify the pupil candidates. However, the existence of eyeglasses has a negative effect on candidate selection. There are also cases where pupils are not bright enough. Regarding these problems the radial symmetry transform (RST) is exploited. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed eye detection algorithm.