Eye/Head Controls for Camera Pointing

Abstract

A setting of a video camera is remotely controlled. Video from a video camera is displayed to a user using a video display. At least one eye of the user is imaged as the user is observing the video display, a change in an image of at least one eye of the user is measured over time, and an eye/head activity variable is calculated from the measured change in the image using an eyetracker. The eye/head activity variable is translated into a camera control setting, and an actuator connected to the video camera is instructed to apply the camera control setting to the video camera using a processor.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for remotely controlling the zoom of a video camera, comprising:
 an actuator connected to the video camera that controls the zoom of the video camera;   a video display that displays video from the video camera to a user;   an eyetracker that measures a longitudinal position of the user's head from the video display; and   a processor that is in communication with the eyetracker and the actuator, and that instructs the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured longitudinal position.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the eyetracker measures the longitudinal position of the user's head with respect to a set point in the middle of an eye box of the video display. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the processor instructs the actuator to zoom in or out with a velocity proportional to the distance between the user's head and the set point. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the eyetracker further measures a pan or tilt angle of the user's head and the processor further instructs the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured pan or tilt angle of the user's head. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the eyetracker further images two eyes of the user as the user is observing the video display and measures a gazepoint range at which the two eyes' gaze lines converge, and wherein the processor further instructs the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured gazepoint range. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the eyetracker includes one eyetracker that images two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the eyetracker includes two eyetrackers each images one of two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the eyetracker utilizes a separate head tracking device. 
     
     
         9 . A method for remotely controlling the zoom of a video camera, comprising:
 controlling the zoom of the video camera using an actuator connected to the video camera;   displaying video from the video camera to a user using a video display;   measuring a longitudinal position of the user's head from the video display using an eyetracker; and   instructing the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured longitudinal position using a processor.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the measuring step includes measuring the longitudinal position of the user's head with respect to a set point in the middle of an eye box of the video display. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the instructing step includes instructing the actuator to zoom in or out with a velocity proportional to the distance between the user's head and the set point. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising measuring a pan or tilt angle of the user's head using the eyetracker and instructing the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured pan or tilt angle of the user's head using the processor. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising measuring the longitudinal position of the user's head from the video display using a separate head tracking device that is part of the eyetracker. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising imaging two eyes of the user as the user is observing the video display and measuring a gazepoint range at which the two eyes' gaze lines converge using the eyetracker, and further instructing the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured gazepoint range using the processor. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the imaging step includes using one eyetracker to image two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the imaging step includes using two eyetrackers each imaging one of two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         17 . A computer program product, comprising a tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium whose contents include a program with instructions being executed on a processor so as to perform a method for remotely controlling the zoom of a video camera, the method comprising:
 providing a system, wherein the system comprises distinct software modules, and wherein the distinct software modules comprise a video display module, an eye tracking module, and a camera control module;   controlling the zoom of the video camera using an actuator connected to the video camera using the camera control module;   displaying video from the video camera to a user using the video display module;   controlling an eyetracker to measure a longitudinal position of the user's head from the video display screen using the eye tracking module; and   instructing the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured longitudinal position using the camera control module.   
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 17 , further comprising controlling an eyetracker to measure the longitudinal position of the user's head by measuring a longitudinal position of the user's head with respect to a set point in the middle of an eye box of the video display using the eye tracking module. 
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 18 , wherein the camera control module further instructs the actuator to zoom in or out with a velocity proportional to the distance between the user's head and the set point. 
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 17 , further comprising controlling the eyetracker to measure a pan or tilt angle of the user's head using the eye tracking module, and further instructing the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured pan or tilt angle of the user's head using the camera control module. 
     
     
         21 . The computer program product of  claim 17 , further comprising controlling the eyetracker to image two eyes of the user as the user is observing the video display and measure a gazepoint range at which the two eyes' gaze lines converge using the eye tracking module, and further instructing the actuator to zoom in or out based on the measured gazepoint range using the camera control module.