US H2,282 H1Granted

Automatic eye tracking control

AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy

InventorsPeter N. Squire, Robert L. Coons, Allison Popola

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An apparatus and method are provided for rapid and hands free switching among plural devices. Signals from such devices include output from plural security cameras, outputs from plural command and control devices, outputs from plural sensors in, e.g., a chemical plant or nuclear power plant, etc. An eye tracker observes changes in an operator's line of sight, thereby inferring a change in the particular one of the plural devices the observer now wishes to observe, and, through an interlock, switches control of that device to the operator. This eliminates the need for the operator to manually switch control, e.g. by keyboard strokes, mouse clicks, or by manually causing lengthy dwell time on the selected device. This in turn makes switching faster, and reduces operator fatigue by considerably reducing physical actions necessary to switch among devices.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A system, said system usable by a human operator, comprising:

a plurality of devices, each of said plurality of devices being adapted to perform one or more functions controllable by said operator, said each of said plurality of devices being further disposed effective to produce an output signal;
a display apparatus, said display apparatus disposed effective to present, responsive to said output signal of said each of said plurality of devices, a corresponding plurality of displays, each of said corresponding plurality of displays corresponding to a respective one of said each of said plurality of devices, said each of said corresponding plurality of displays being visually intelligible to said operator;
and
an eye tracker, said eye tracker being disposed effective to make a determination of the specific one of said corresponding plurality of displays said operator is looking at, said eye tracker being further adapted to generate a signal effective to enable said operator to selectably control at least one of said one or more functions of said respective one of said plurality of devices corresponding to said specific one of said plurality of displays.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.