High-Speed Eye Tracking via Asynchronous Illumination Pulses
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional eye tracking systems are unable to detect and measure rapid, high-resolution changes in eye movements and parameters, such as pupil size and gaze direction, due to their frame-based capture methods and limited sampling rates, which are insufficient for real-life environments with movement and variability.
Innovation Solution
The system employs active pixel sensors that react only to changes in illumination, generating and analyzing rapid, asynchronous light stimuli with high Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) and short response times, allowing for pixel-by-pixel data transfer of only changed pixels, enabling high-speed tracking of eye movements and components like the pupil and iris.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If frame-based capture methods are used in conventional eye tracking systems, then the system structure is simple and easy to implement, but the sampling rate is limited and cannot detect rapid eye movements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic illumination pulses at high frequency to stimulate the eye, replacing continuous frame-based capture. This periodic action enables rapid sampling of eye movements by synchronizing illumination with the expected frequency of eye movements, achieving high-speed tracking without requiring complex continuous capture systems
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical frame-based capture system with an optical stimulation and detection system. By using illuminated stimuli and detecting reflected light changes, the system achieves high-speed sampling without the mechanical constraints of traditional frame cameras, substituting mechanical capture with optical field-based measurement
2Measurement precision
If conventional frame-based systems are used, then the device complexity is low, but the measurement precision of rapid eye movements is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces mechanical frame-based capture with optical field-based detection using illuminated stimuli. This substitution enables precise measurement of rapid eye movements by detecting changes in reflected light patterns, achieving high measurement precision without the temporal limitations of mechanical frame systems
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses periodic illumination at frequencies matched to eye movement dynamics, enabling precise capture of rapid movements. The periodic stimulation creates consistent reference points for measurement, improving precision by synchronizing the detection rhythm with the physiological rhythm of eye movements
3Productivity
If high sampling rates are implemented in conventional systems, then rapid eye movements can be detected, but the system complexity and data processing burden increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes only the relevant signal components from the reflected light, focusing on changes in illumination patterns rather than processing complete frames. This extraction approach reduces data volume by isolating only the eye movement-related information, maintaining high tracking speed while minimizing processing complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial action by illuminating only specific regions of interest in the eye and processing only the corresponding reflected light data. This selective approach reduces the overall data processing burden while maintaining high tracking performance for the critical eye movement parameters
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables efficient, reliable, and accurate tracking of eye movements and characteristics, suitable for various applications including navigation, medical diagnostics, and user interaction analysis, with improved sampling rates and resolution compared to traditional systems.
Implementation Method 1
a set of optical sensors, to sense changes to one or more properties of reflections of illumination pulses from the human eye
Data Source
AI summary
Device, method, and system of high-speed eye tracking. A system includes: a set of illumination sources, to selectively generate illumination pulses towards a human eye in accordance with a particular timing scheme per illumination source and in accordance with a particular wavelength per illumination source; a set of optical sensors, to sense changes to one or more properties of reflections of the illumination pulses from the human eye in response to modifications in operational properties of the illumination sources; and a processor to process the sensed changes, and to generate one or more processing results that are based on the sensed changes.