Apple Inc.

Julia Benndorf

Hua Gao

Tom Sengelaub

Hao Qin

Julian K Shutzberg

Paul A Lacey

Qichao Fan

Methods and apparatus for correcting the gaze direction and the origin (entrance pupil) in gaze tracking systems. During enrollment after an eye model is obtained, the pose of the eye when looking at a target prompt is determined. This information is used to estimate the true visual axis of the eye. The visual axis may then be used to correct the point of view (PoV) with respect to the display during use. If a clip-on lens is present, a corrected gaze axis may be calculated based on the known optical characteristics and pose of the clip-on lens. A clip-on corrected entrance pupil may then be estimated by firing two or more virtual rays through the clip-on lens to determine the intersection between the rays and the corrected gaze axis.

Corrected gaze direction and origin

Some implementations of the disclosure involve, at a device having one or more processors, one or more image sensors, and an illumination source, detecting a first attribute of an eye based on pixel differences associated with different wavelengths of light in a first image of the eye. These implementations next determine a first location associated with the first attribute in a three dimensional (3D) coordinate system based on depth information from a depth sensor. Various implementations detect a second attribute of the eye based on a glint resulting from light of the illumination source reflecting off a cornea of the eye. These implementations next determine a second location associated with the second attribute in the 3D coordinate system based on the depth information from the depth sensor, and determine a gaze direction in the 3D coordinate system based on the first location and the second location.

Sensor fusion eye tracking

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Julia Benndorf