Robust real time eye tracking for computer interface for disabled people

Gaze is a natural input for a Human Computer Interface (HCI) for disabled people, who have of course an acute need for a communication system. An efficient eye tracking procedure is presented providing a non-invasive method for real time detection of a subject eyes in a sequence of frames captured by low cost equipment. The procedure can be easily adapted to any subject and is adequately insensitive to changing of the illumination. The eye identification is performed on a piece-wise constant approximation of the frames. it is based on a discrete level set formulation of the variational approach to the optimal segmentation problem. This yields a simplified version of the original data retaining all the information relevant to the application. Tracking is obtained by a fast update of the optimal segmentation between successive frames. No eye movement model is required being the procedure fast enough to obtain the current frame segmentation as one step update from the previous frame segmentation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved