Alternating Single-Eye Tracking for Higher Gaze Refresh Rates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing eye tracking technologies face limitations in increasing the refresh rate of display screens due to hardware constraints in calculating user gaze positions, leading to poor user experience in VR and AR applications.
Innovation Solution
An eye tracking apparatus and method that utilizes a camera and processor to capture and process single-eye images at different time points, calculating sight directions separately for each eye and generating combined gazes, thereby increasing the update efficiency and frame rate.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional eye tracking technology processes both eyes simultaneously to calculate gaze position, then measurement precision is maintained, but processing speed decreases and refresh rate cannot be increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the eye tracking process into separate processing stages for left and right eyes. Instead of processing both eyes simultaneously, the system alternates between processing single-eye images from the left eye and single-eye images from the right eye, thereby reducing computational load per frame while maintaining overall gaze accuracy through temporal integration of both eyes' data
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements periodic alternation between processing left eye images and right eye images at different time points. This periodic processing approach allows the computational workload to be distributed over time, enabling higher refresh rates while still incorporating data from both eyes to maintain measurement precision
2Productivity
If hardware computing power is increased to calculate both eyes' sight directions simultaneously, then refresh rate can be increased, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the gaze calculation task into alternating single-eye processing operations. By processing one eye at a time rather than both eyes simultaneously, the system reduces the peak computational requirements, enabling higher refresh rates with existing hardware capabilities without increasing device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs partial processing by calculating sight direction for only one eye at each time point rather than both eyes. This partial action approach reduces computational demand per frame, allowing the refresh rate to be increased without requiring additional hardware power
Data Source
AI summary
An eye tracking apparatus and method are provided. The eye tracking apparatus is configured to execute the following operations. The apparatus obtains a first single-eye image of a first eye at a first time point and a first single-eye image of a second eye at a second time point based on a plurality of eye images of a user. The apparatus calculates a first sight direction based on the first single-eye image of the first eye at the first time point and calculates a second sight direction based on the first single-eye image of the second eye at the second time point. The apparatus generates a combined gaze based on the first sight direction and the second sight direction at the second time point.