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 toe-in angles of stereoscopic video cameras comprising:
 a toe-in actuator connected to the video cameras that controls the video cameras' toe-in angle;   a stereoscopic video display that displays stereoscopic video from the video cameras to the user;   a binocular eyetracker that images the two eyes of the user as the user is observing the stereoscopic video display, measures a left gaze line from the left eye of the user to the stereoscopic video display, measures a right gaze line from the left eye of the user to the stereoscopic video display, and calculates a parallax angle of the two eyes as the angle of intersection of the right gaze line and the left gaze line; and   a processor that is in communication with the eyetracker and the toe-in actuator, and that commands the toe-in actuator to adjust the video cameras' toe-in angle to match the parallax angle of the two eyes.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the eyetracker that measures the parallax angles of the two eyes is a binocular version eyetracker. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the processor computes camera parallax commands to follow the parallax angle of the two eyes. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein matching the video camera's toe-in angle with the parallax angle of the two eyes is geometrically equivalent to matching relative object and image ranges. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein if the user's gaze point remains focused on an object beyond the video camera's convergence range, the processor instructs the video cameras to converge further out, and wherein bringing the video camera's convergence range in the real world into alignment with the two eyes' convergence range within the stereoscopic video display, brings the video camera's toe-in angle into alignment with the two eyes' parallax angle. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the eyetracker includes one eyetracker that images two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , 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 system for remotely controlling the convergence angles of stereoscopic video cameras comprising:
 a convergence-angle actuator connected to the video cameras that controls the video cameras' convergence angle;   a stereoscopic video display that displays stereoscopic video from the video cameras to the user;   a binocular eyetracker that images the two eyes of the user as the user is observing the stereoscopic video display, measures a left gaze line from the left eye of the user to the stereoscopic video display, measures a right gaze line from the left eye of the user to the stereoscopic video display, and calculates a distance from the left eye or right eye to the intersection of the right gaze line and the left gaze line as a gazepoint range; and   a processor that is in communication with the eyetracker and the convergence-angle actuator, and that commands the convergence-angle actuator to adjust the video cameras' convergence angle to converge at the measured gazepoint range.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein if the user's gaze point remains focused on an object beyond the video camera's convergence range, the processor instructs the video cameras to converge further out, and wherein bringing the video camera's convergence range in the real world into alignment with the two eyes' convergence range within the stereoscopic video display, brings the video camera's toe-in angle into alignment with the two eyes' parallax angle. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the eyetracker includes one eyetracker that images two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the eyetracker includes two eyetrackers each images one of two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the eyetracker utilizes a separate head tracking device. 
     
     
         14 . A system for remotely controlling the focus range of stereoscopic video cameras comprising:
 focus-range actuators connected to the video cameras that control the video cameras' focus ranges;   a stereoscopic video display that displays stereoscopic video from the video cameras to the user;   a binocular eyetracker that images the two eyes of the user as the user is observing the stereoscopic video display, measures a left gaze line from the left eye of the user to the stereoscopic video display, measures a right gaze line from the left eye of the user to the stereoscopic video display, and calculates a distance from the left eye or right eye to the intersection of the right gaze line and the left gaze line as a gazepoint range and   a processor that is in communication with the eyetracker and focus-range actuators, and that commands the focus-range actuators to adjust the video cameras' focus ranges to match the gazepoint range.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the eyetracker includes one eyetracker that images two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the eyetracker includes two eyetrackers each images one of two eyes of the user. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the eyetracker utilizes a separate head tracking device.