Visual line detecting device and camera having the same
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsTokuichi Tsunekawa, Akihiko Nagano, Kazuki Konishi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A visual line detecting device is arranged to detect the Purkinje image position of an illuminated eye of an observer through light reflected by the eye and to detect the direction of the visual line of the observer from the Purkinje image position and the position of the pupil center of the eye. The device estimates the pupil diameter of the eye from the luminance of external light and determines the position of the center of the pupil by determining the position of a boundary between the pupil and the iris of the eye on the basis of the pupil diameter estimated.
Claims25
A visual line detecting device arranged to detect a Purkinje image position of an illuminated eye through light reflected by the eye and to detect the direction of a visual line on the basis of the Purkinje image position and a position of the center of a pupil, comprising:
- a) means for estimating a diameter of the pupil of the eye from the luminance of external light;
- and
- b) means for determining said position of the center of the pupil by determining a position of a boundary between the pupil and an iris of the eye on the basis of the estimated diameter of the pupil.
A visual line detecting device for detecting the direction of a visual line, by detecting an image position of a tissue of an illuminated eye on the basis of light reflected by the eye, on the basis of said image position and a position of the center of a pupil of the eye, comprising:
- a) means for estimating a diameter of the pupil of the eye from the luminance of external light;
- and
- b) means for determining said position of the center of the pupil by determining a position of a boundary between the pupil and an iris of the eye on the basis of estimated diameter of the pupil.
A camera having a visual line detecting device, comprising:
- a) illuminating means for illuminating an eye;
- b) image detecting means for detecting an image position of a tissue of the eye from light reflected by the eye illuminated by said illuminating means;
- c) light measuring means for detecting the luminance of external light;
- d) pupil diameter estimating means for estimating a diameter of a pupil of the eye on an basis of an output of said light measuring means;
- and
- e) computing means for determining a position of a boundary between the pupil and an iris of the eye on the basis of information on the diameter of the pupil estimated by said pupil diameter estimating means to estimate a position of the center of the pupil, and for detecting the direction of the visual line on the basis of said image position detected by said image detecting means and said position of the center of the pupil.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.