Method and apparatus for tracking user's gaze point using mobile terminal
A method for tracking a user's gaze point using a mobile terminal is provided. The method includes detecting the user's eye area from a camera that is mounted in the mobile terminal and selecting reference points of the eye area, detecting a pupil corresponding to an interest area that is obtained from the reference points, generating a first virtual grid of the eye area using a pickup image of a gaze point of the pupil corresponding to each corner of the display and generating a second virtual grid having the same division areas as those of the first virtual grid in the display, and mapping a position of the pupil within the second virtual grid area corresponding to a position of the pupil within the first virtual grid.
1. A method of tracking a gaze point of a user gazing at a display of a mobile terminal, the method comprising:
detecting the user's eye area from a camera that is mounted in the mobile terminal and selecting reference points of the eye area;
detecting a pupil corresponding to an interest area that is obtained from the reference points;
generating a first virtual grid of the eye area using a pickup image of a gaze point of the pupil corresponding to each corner of the display and generating a second virtual grid having same division areas as division areas of the first virtual grid in the display; and
mapping a position of the pupil within a second virtual grid area corresponding to a position of the pupil within the first virtual grid.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising changing a position or a size of the first virtual grid by detecting a position movement of the eye area in a screen area of the display.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the reference points of the eye area comprise an eye head point and an eye tail point.
4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the generating of a first virtual grid comprises determining a size of the width and the height of the first virtual grid using a difference value of a gaze position of two lateral corners of the corners and a difference value of a gaze position of two vertical corners.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the generating of a first virtual grid comprises operating a depth between the mobile terminal and the pupil using a value x, which is a half of a difference value of a gaze position of the two lateral corners with the following equation:
depth
=
s
x
eyeball
radius
-
eyeball
radius
where s indicates a half of a width of the display, and eyeball radius indicates an average radius of an eyeball.
6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the changing of a position or a size of the first virtual grid comprises:
changing a position or a size of the first virtual grid by detecting a three-dimensional position change of the eye area; and
changing a size of the first virtual grid using a distance between the mobile terminal and the eye area that is obtained from a distance between reference points of the eye area and moving a position of the first virtual grid using a two-dimensional position change of the eye area in the screen area.
7. An apparatus for tracking a gaze point of a user gazing at a display of a mobile terminal, the apparatus comprising:
an eye area detector that detects the user's eye area from a camera that is mounted in the mobile terminal, that selects reference points of the eye area, and that detects a pupil corresponding to an interest area that is obtained from the reference points;
a grid generator that generates a first virtual grid of the eye area using a pickup image of a gaze point of the pupil corresponding to each corner of the display and that generates a second virtual grid having same division areas as division areas of the first virtual grid in the display; and
a gaze point mapping processor that maps a position of the pupil within a second virtual grid area corresponding to a position of the pupil within the first virtual grid.
8. The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising a position detector that changes a position or a size of the first virtual grid by detecting a position change of the eye area in a screen area of the display.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the grid generator determines a size of the width and the height of the first virtual grid using a difference value of a gaze position of two lateral corners of the corners and a difference value of a gaze position of two vertical corners.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the grid generator operates a depth between the mobile terminal and the pupil with the following equation using a value x, which is a half of a difference value of a gaze position of the lateral two corners:
depth
=
s
x
eyeball
radius
-
eyeball
radius
where s indicates a half of a width of the display, and eyeball radius indicates an average radius of an eyeball.
11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the position detector changes a position or a size of the first virtual grid by detecting a three-dimensional position change of the eye area, changes a size of the first virtual grid using a distance between the mobile terminal and the eye area that is obtained from a distance between reference points of the eye area, and moves a position of the first virtual grid using a two-dimensional position change of the eye area in the screen area.
12. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the reference points of the eye area comprise an eye head point and an eye tail point.