Building a Low-Cost and High-Speed Eye-Tracking System

• Main Authors: Zong-Sian Jiang, 江宗憲
• Other Authors: Chi-Wu Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/70699417979425793995

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 應用電子科技研究所 === 101 === This research presents a detailed approach to build an eye-tracker with low-cost and satisfied performance. Basically, an eye-tracker uses cameras to monitor the pupil movements of the eyes and to predict the gaze positions on the computer screen. The images displayed on the screen may either come from the computer itself or from the screen cameras, if attached around the eyes, with the maximum frame capturing rate of 75 frames per second (fps). The pupil monitoring cameras of the eye-tracker using infrared light are the main hardware devices which should be precisely controlled by the comprehensive software for the proper image capturing and processing. The commercial eye-trackers are very expensive just because such rather complicated technologies of hardware and software integrations are involved. Our low-cost approach started form the widely surveys of both the web-cams to be modified as infrared monitoring cameras, and the basic open core control software released for sale increase of the related products or for helping the software developments of the relative research as well as applications. Finally, after undergoing many trial and error experiments of hardware and software integrations, our eye-trackers incorporated the modified infrared camera from Sony PS3 Eye-Cam with proper tuned and modified control software from CL Eye Platform Driver [18]are constructed. Each constructed eye-tracker cost around US$ 100 and demonstrated 184 Hz sample rate. Comparing to the commercial eye-tracker Tobii which cost above US$ 5000 and run at 30 Hz, our eye-tracker is 16 times less in cost and 6 times faster in frame capturing. Furthermore, our eye-tracker also exhibited the best performances under the ISO9241-Part 9 TEST in the items of “Response time” and “Correct response rate” when compared with two other eye-trackers including the commercial Tobii. In additions to the hardware and software system integrations achieved, some software programs are also developed for the practical applications such as the graphic interfaces of ScanPath, HotZone and SelectROI, as well as the data analysis of Fixation and Saccade.