Precise and Real-time Pupil Position Estimation in Color Camera Face Images Based on Near-infrared Pupil Detection Method

Abstract

A recent finding showed that infants with autism do not tend to look into their mother's eyes. The disease can be diagnosed by examining the eccentricity of the infant's gaze distribution from the mother's eyes and showing a video of the mother's face on a display screen. In the present study, to cope with a lot of examination, we develop a system that immediately detects the pupil positions in the mother's face video provided by the color camera using our robust pupil detection technique. The system consists of one color camera and two monochrome cameras with near-infrared light sources. All cameras are calibrated. The monochrome camera determines the 3D positions of the mother's pupil centers, which are transformed into the coordinates in the color camera image. These processes were easily performed with 60 fps. In addition, the experimental results show the precise pupil center detection in the color face videos.