A Novel Egocentric Pointing System Based on Smart Glasses

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel, egocentric pointing system based on Google Glass which is equipped with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD) and a near-eye camera, with the eye-pointing line passing through the lower left corner of the display. For a pointed target, the pointing (or ranging) algorithm is based on a distance-pixel curve established from the camera-eye (epipolar) geometry. Additional pointing algorithms for estimating gazing point on a planar surface are also developed by establishing another distance-pixel curve along the same epipolar line. Experiments show that less than 0.32 degrees angular error in the egocentric pointing can be achieved for object distance ranging from 80cm to 178cm by the best estimation scheme, with slightly less accurate results (i.e. 0.58 degrees) achievable by simpler estimation schemes.