Unobtrusive Low Cost Pupil Size Measurements using Web cameras

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time, unobtrusive method for measuring pupil size using standard web cameras, enabling health and emotional monitoring with low-cost hardware.

Contribution

It introduces an efficient, real-time technique for pupil size estimation from web cameras, combining face and eye detection with optimal filtering for accurate measurements.

Findings

Method is efficient and effective in real-time pupil measurement.

Uses common low-cost web cameras for unobtrusive health monitoring.

Accurate pupil size estimation demonstrated through experiments.

Abstract

Unobtrusive every day health monitoring can be of important use for the elderly population. In particular, pupil size may be a valuable source of information, since, apart from pathological cases, it can reveal the emotional state, the fatigue and the ageing. To allow for unobtrusive monitoring to gain acceptance, one should seek for efficient methods of monitoring using com- mon low-cost hardware. This paper describes a method for monitoring pupil sizes using a common web camera in real time. Our method works by first detecting the face and the eyes area. Subsequently, optimal iris and sclera location and radius, modelled as ellipses, are found using efficient filtering. Finally, the pupil center and radius is estimated by optimal filtering within the area of the iris. Experimental result show both the efficiency and the effectiveness of our approach.