A ring of IR LEDs is placed around the inside of each spectacle rim. I reckon 6 should be sufficient. The LEDs are angled to point in at the eye. Between the LEDs are IR sensors. Each LED emits a signal modulated at a different frequency. The signals scatter off the eyeball and are picked up by the sensors.

Because of the different reflectivity of the iris and the white, the relative strength of each LED signal received at each sensor will depend on the position of the eyeball. The different LED signals arriving at a particular sensor can be deinterleaved, as they have different modulation frequencies.

You would end up with an NxN matrix (N is the number of LEDs/sensors), where each value is a signal strength from 1 LED at 1 sensor. The matrix could be analysed to determine the glance direction, after a certain amount of calibration. Perhaps a neural network would come in handy for this.

This device could be used in a variety of applications where glance direction information is necessary.

I belive that others may have groped towards this before, if only clumsily. Probably the air force.
-- Mickey the Fish, Jul 12 2000

Eye Tracking Research & Applications http://www.vr.clems...yetracking/et-conf/
A conference on eye tracking technology [egnor, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Development of a Portable Eye Tracker http://www.cis.rit....8898/srp/thesis.htm
Fits in a baseball cap (not spectacles, not yet). [egnor, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Virtual Interfaces http://www.hitl.was...ns/r-98-22/ch4.html
Using a portable eye tracker as part of a system to avoid "simulator sickness". Small enough to be attached to VR goggles. [egnor, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Chris Rorden's Eye Monitor Page http://www.mrc-cbu....n/eyemon/eyemon.htm
Attaches to a pair of ordinary spectacles! (Still probably bulkier than you'd like.) [egnor, Jul 12 2000, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Long-range Eye Tracker Enables Selling Ads 'By The Eyeball' http://www.scienced...05/070513084620.htm
[ironfroggy, May 19 2007]

egnor. Sorry if the last paragraph was a tad arrogant. My point was to shrink the whole thing into a wearable, and move away from the 'head clamped in a frame with 2 cameras in front' situation. I have in mind applications which do not involve gazing at computer screens.
-- Mickey the Fish, Jul 12 2000


Ah, I see.

(I was noting that eye tracking in general is a well-baked idea, not picking up on the fact that Mickey wants to make it super-portable.)

The current state of the art in eye-tracking is to use an IR LED combined with a small IR-filtered CCD camera and image processing software designed to compute eye position.
-- egnor, Jul 12 2000


Perhaps these could be developed into some sort of clip-on visor (a la Geordi LeForge) so that the glasses could be self adjusting. When you look in a direction, the visor takes a picture of what you're looking at, compares it with what your seeing and adjusts the lenses to bring things into correct focus. You'd probably have to do an initial set-up exercise (along with a sensor implant at the back of the eyes) but after that they'd just make minor adjustments as your eyesight changed.
-- DrBob, Jul 13 2000


Hrm, I see a few more problems with the implant idea you mention than are worth solving. what happens to the system when the "baseline" camera your vision is compared against gets a grain of dust on it?

There are people working on maybe altering existing adaptive optics systems to one day be small enough to use as vision enhancers. I will try to dig up some adaptive optics links from telescopy in the next few days, if I can.
-- bear, Jul 14 2000


So I'll just have to buy some new specs instead then?
-- DrBob, Jul 14 2000


Bluetooth communication between these specs worn by different people would allow them to determine when you were gazing romantically into the eyes of someone else (by measuring gaze direction and iris dilation) and automatically play appropriate romantic music.
-- hippo, Mar 13 2002


If you were looking at something you shouldn't, nicely turned ankle or an ample decolletage for instance, the lenses could be made of an electro sensitive material that darkened to opaque instantly as an aid to concentration.
-- IvanIdea, Mar 13 2002


Pfft, I don't think you need fancy goggles to tell whether someone's gazing romantically at you, especially if it's in the eyes...
-- Crazy Bastard, Sep 25 2002


It seems like there are few uses for these that could be better solved with a camera atop a screen detecting eyes.

Also see the link I added about work done on this kind of tracking that is far more effective than previous attempts. Your solution requires glasses, this new one can work with anyone who just happens to walk within thirty feet of it.
-- ironfroggy, May 19 2007


I'd bun this if detection of eye movement activated a deveice that turned one's head.
-- nuclear hobo, May 19 2007



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