Eye-Mounted Femtoimager Coordination with External Camera
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for determining what a person is looking at in an external environment are limited in accuracy and often require cumbersome external equipment, failing to account for eye movement and providing incomplete information about the user's field of view.
Innovation Solution
A small imager (femtoimager) mounted on a user's eye is coordinated with an external camera by comparing their images to estimate the femtoimager's view relative to the external camera's view, using a processing module to correlate pixels and track the aim point over time, even when the devices have different fields of view and capabilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a camera is attached to the user (on helmet or goggles), then the system can capture images of the external environment, but it does not account for eye movement and provides incomplete information about the user's field of view
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple measurement functions into a single integrated system. The eye-mounted imager on the contact lens captures retinal images while external cameras capture environmental images, and a processing module coordinates these inputs to simultaneously track eye movement and determine gaze direction, eliminating the need for separate complex external equipment for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The femtoimager is nested within the contact lens structure worn by the user, and the entire eye-tracking system is nested within the broader gaze estimation system. The contact lens with embedded imager is positioned inside the user's visual system, while external cameras are positioned outside, creating a nested architecture where internal and external sensors work together.
2Measurement precision
If a camera system faces the user's eye to capture images of the eye over time, then information on eye orientation and movement can be obtained, but the user's field of view must still be tied to the reference frame of the external environment
Solution Approach 1:
The processing module serves as an intermediary that receives data from both the eye-mounted imager and external cameras, coordinates their different reference frames, and integrates the information. This mediator transforms and aligns the coordinate systems of internal eye-tracking data with external environmental data, making the integration straightforward.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary calibration and coordinate transformation setup before actual gaze estimation. The processing module pre-establishes the reference frame relationships between the eye-mounted imager and external cameras, so that during operation, the coordination of different reference frames occurs automatically without complex real-time calculations.
3Loss of information
If multiple external cameras are used to capture the user's field of view, then more complete information can be obtained, but the equipment becomes more cumbersome and visible to others
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the function of multiple external cameras with a single eye-mounted imager. Instead of using only external cameras to capture the entire field of view, the system combines the eye-mounted imager's retinal image capture with coordinated external camera inputs, reducing the need for multiple external cameras while maintaining complete field of view information.
Solution Approach 2:
The eye-mounted imager captures a partial view (retinal images of the foveal region), and this partial information is combined with external camera data to reconstruct the complete field of view. The system uses the minimal necessary eye-mounted sensing to guide the external cameras, rather than requiring multiple external cameras to capture everything independently.
Data Source
AI summary
A small imager mounted on a user's eye (referred to as a femtoimager) is coordinated with an external camera. The femtoimager may be contained in a contact lens, and it may be aligned with the gaze a user's eye. The femtoimager and external camera capture images with overlapping views of the external environment. Images from the two imagers may be compared with one another to estimate the femtoimager's view of the external environment relative to the camera's view of the external environment. This may then be used for different applications.