Sensing and controlling human gaze in daily living space for human-harmonized information environments

Abstract

This chapter introduces new techniques we developed for sensing and guiding human gaze non-invasively in daily living space. Such technologies are the key to realize human-harmonized information systems which can provide us various kinds of supports effectively without distracting our activities. Toward the goal of realizing non-invasive gaze sensing, we developed gaze estimation techniques, which requires very limited or no calibration effort by exploiting various cues such as spontaneous attraction of our visual attention to visual stimuli. For shifting our gaze to desired locations in a non-disturbing and natural way, we exploited two approaches for gaze control: subtle modulation of visual stimuli based on visual saliency models, and non-verbal gestures in human-robot interactions.