Gaze Tracking Screen Content Positioning for Eye Contact
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Solution Overview
Problem
During visual online communications, users often struggle to maintain eye contact with others due to screen content being displayed outside the camera's field of view, leading to a perception of distraction and lack of focus.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize gaze tracking data to display screen content within the camera region, allowing users to look at the screen content while maintaining the impression of eye contact, by determining the user's gaze area and adjusting the screen content's position to be visible within the camera region.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If screen content is displayed in a screen area far away from the camera, then the user can view important screen content, but the user cannot maintain eye contact with the other person
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the display of screen content based on real-time gaze tracking data. When the user looks away from the camera region, the system temporarily overlays or relocates important screen content into the camera region, creating a dynamic adaptation that resolves the contradiction between viewing content and maintaining eye contact.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary system comprising gaze tracking devices and software that mediates between the user's natural viewing behavior and the requirement for eye contact. This intermediary detects gaze patterns and automatically adjusts content positioning, serving as a bridge that allows both content visibility and eye contact maintenance without requiring direct user intervention.
2Loss of information
If the user looks at the screen content, then the user can read important information, but the other person may get the bad feeling that the user is distracted
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback loop where gaze tracking data continuously informs content positioning decisions. The system monitors when the user looks at screen content versus when the user should be looking at the camera, and provides real-time feedback by adjusting content display location. This feedback mechanism allows the user to read information while the system compensates by positioning content in the camera region during appropriate moments, maintaining perceived focus.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-positioning important screen content in or near the camera region before the user needs to read it. By anticipating when content will be needed and pre-placing it in a location that maintains eye contact, the system eliminates the need for the user to shift attention away from the camera, thus maintaining perceived focus while ensuring information accessibility.
3Extent of automation
If eye tracking devices are used to trigger functions by looking in a certain area, then automated control is achieved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the universality principle by making the camera serve multiple functions: it acts as both the communication device for visual contact and the gaze tracking sensor. The existing camera hardware is repurposed to detect user gaze direction through image processing, eliminating the need for separate dedicated gaze tracking hardware and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service by using the device's own existing camera to perform gaze tracking, rather than requiring external specialized equipment. The camera captures images that are processed to determine gaze direction, allowing the system to service its own control needs using resources already present in the device, thereby minimizing additional complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for assisting a user, who is looking at a screen of a user device, to focus on a camera region of the screen includes receiving image data of the user, the image data being captured by a camera of the user device arranged to the screen close to the camera region; determining user input data indicative of that the user wants assistance to focus on the camera region; determining, based on the user input, gaze tracking data of the user looking at the screen, wherein the gaze tracking data are representative for a gaze area on the screen, at which the user is looking at a time of the user input or shortly before the user input; and displaying a screen content in the gaze area of the screen in the camera region.