Gaze direction estimation tool based on head motion analysis or iris position estimation

In this paper, we present two versions of a demonstrator for gaze direction estimation. The first version is based on the analysis and the interpretation of head movements, especially in case of important head rotations. In such a case, we suppose that the gaze direction coincides with the head orientation. The second version of the demonstrator is based on the analysis of the iris centres positions (with respect to the eyes corners) and it supposes that the head remains quasi static or undergoes small translations. This version supposes also that the size of the head in the processed frame is big enough to be able to extract the iris centre position with enough accuracy. A typical example of use is the analysis of the gaze direction of a user working in front of a PC. In both cases, the result of the demonstrator is a characterization of the gaze direction in term of looking left, right, up or down. An evaluation of the accuracy of the estimated gaze direction is beyond the scope of the present work.