Fast and accurate algorithm for eye localisation for gaze tracking in low‐resolution images

Abstract

Iris centre (IC) localisation in low‐resolution visible images is a challenging problem in computer vision community due to noise, shadows, occlusions, pose variations, eye blinks etc. This study proposes an efficient method for determining IC in low‐resolution images in the visible spectrum. Even low‐cost consumer‐grade webcams can be used for gaze tracking without any additional hardware. A two‐stage algorithm is proposed for IC localisation. The proposed method uses geometrical characteristics of the eye. In the first stage, a fast convolution‐based approach is used for obtaining the coarse location of IC). The IC location is further refined in the second stage using boundary tracing and ellipse fitting. The algorithm has been evaluated in public databases such as BioID, Gi4E and is found to outperform the state‐of‐the‐art methods