Eye tracking and animation for MPEG-4 coding

Accurate localization and tracking of facial features are crucial for developing high quality model-based coding (MPEG-4) systems. For teleconferencing applications at very low bit rates, it is necessary to track eye and lip movements accurately over time. These movements can be coded and transmitted to a remote site, where animation techniques can be used to synthesize facial movements on a model of a face. In this paper we describe simple heuristics which are effective in improving the results of well-known facial feature detection and tracking algorithms. Animation models are also presented, along with experimental results to demonstrate the system being developed. We focus our discussion only on the detection, tracking and modeling of eye movements.