Binocular gaze detection method using a fuzzy algorithm based on quality measurements

Due to the limitations of gaze detection based on one eye, binocular gaze detection using the gaze positions of both eyes has been researched. Most previous binocular gaze detection research calculated a gaze position as the simple average position of the detected gaze points of both eyes. To improve this approach, we propose a new binocular gaze detection method using a fuzzy algorithm with quality measurement of both eyes. The proposedmethod is used in the following three ways. First, in order to combine the gaze points of the left and right eyes, we measure four qualities on both eyes: distortion by an eyelid, distortion by the specular reflection (SR), the level of circularity of the pupil, and the distance between the pupil boundary and the SR center. Second, in order to obtain a more accurate pupil boundary, we compensate the distorted boundary of a pupil by an eyelid based on information from the lower half-circle of the pupil. Third, the final gaze position is calculated using a fuzzy algorithm based on four quality-measured scores. Experimental results show that the root-mean-square error of gaze estimation by the proposed method is approximately 0.67518 deg. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. [DOI: 10.1117/1.OE.53.5.053111]