TWO-PHASE APPROACH - CALIBRATION AND IRIS CONTOUR ESTIMATION - FOR GAZE TRACKING OF HEAD-MOUNTED EYE CAMERA

The fitting of an ellipse to the iris contour is usually performed using five unknown parameters. In this study, we divide the continuous gaze estimation of a head-mounted eye camera into two phases. One phase, known as the calibration phase, is used to estimate the eyeball center position in relation to the coordinate system of the head-mounted eye camera. The other phase is used to fit the iris contour in 2D images employing only two parameters for gaze estimation. As seen from the experimental results, the proposed method demonstrates both credible eyeball center estimation and an accurate iris contour estimation in comparison with the conventional five unknown parameter approach.