Vision & Cognition Laboratory

Department of Computer Science, Drexel University

 
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The World in Eyes

Eyes in images convey very rich visual information. It turns out that the cornea of an eye and a camera viewing the eye form a catadioptric imaging system. Unlike conventional catadioptric systems, this corneal imaging system is an uncalibrated one. We use a geometric model of the cornea based on anatomical studies to self-calibrate the system. Once this is done, a wide-angle view of the environment of the person can be obtained from the image. In addition, we can compute the projection of the environment onto the retina with its center aligned with the gaze direction. This foveated retinal image reveals what the person is looking at. We present a detailed analysis of the characteristics of the corneal imaging system including field of view, resolution and locus of viewpoints. When both eyes of a person are captured in an image, we have a stereo corneal imaging system. We analyze the epipolar geometry of this stereo system and show how it can be used to compute 3D structure. The visual information extracted from eyes can be used to understand the circumstance and intent of the person in the image. Such information can be of significant use in various fields including psychology, HCI, and computer graphics. (with S.K. Nayar)

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