A method of detecting and tracking irises and eyelids in video

We locate the eye corners, eyelids, and irises in every frame of an image sequence, and analyze the movements of the irises and eyelids to determine changes in gaze direction and blinking, respectively. Using simple models for the motions of the head and eyes, we determine the head-independent motions of the irises and eyelids by stabilizing for the head motion. The head-independent motions of the irises can be used to determine behaviors like saccades and smooth pursuit. Tracking the upper eyelid and using the distance between its apex and the center of the iris, we detect instances of eye closure during blinking. In experiments on two short image sequences, in one of which the subject was wearing glasses, we successfully located the irises in every frame in which the eyes were fully or partially open, and successfully located the eyelids 80% of the time. When motion information in the form of normal flow was used, the irises were successfully tracked in every frame in which the eyes were fully or partially open, and the eyelids were successfully located and tracked 90% of the time.