Patent ID: 11972042
Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 14:
15. A gaze detection assembly, comprising:
a plurality of infrared (IR) light emitters configured to emit IR light toward a user eye;
an IR camera configured to sequentially capture IR images of the user eye; and
a controller configured to:
during a reference frame, control the plurality of IR light emitters to emit IR light toward the user eye with a reference intensity distribution;
during the reference frame, capture a first IR image of the user eye, the first IR image depicting a first glint distribution on the user eye;
output a first gaze direction estimate of the user eye based at least in part on the first glint distribution;
during a subsequent frame, based at least in part on the first glint distribution, control the plurality of IR light emitters to emit IR light toward the user eye with a subsequent intensity distribution, different than the reference intensity distribution, by reducing one or both of:
an intensity of the IR light emitted by the plurality of IR light emitters as compared to the reference intensity distribution, and
a quantity of the IR light emitters emitting IR light toward the user eye as compared to the reference intensity distribution;

during the subsequent frame, capture a second IR image of the user eye, the second IR image depicting a second glint distribution on the of the user eye;
output a second gaze direction estimate of the user eye based at least in part on the second glint distribution; and
on a recheck frame occurring one or more frames after the subsequent frame, control the plurality of IR light emitters to emit IR light toward the user eye with the reference intensity distribution, wherein the recheck frame is triggered responsive to the controller outputting a subsequent gaze direction estimate of the user eye having an associated confidence parameter below a predetermined confidence threshold.