Abstract:
The present invention is a method and apparatus for enhancing a perceived video quality (e.g. higher resolution) on a display in a region surrounding an intersection point of a user&#39;s gaze onto a screen of the display.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Technical Field  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for enhancing the perceived video quality on a display.  
           [0003]    2. Related Art  
           [0004]    Eye tracking devices generally are based upon the principal that the direction of a person&#39;s gaze is directly related to the relative position of a pupil of an eye of a person. These eye tracking devices may include processing capabilities that operate on a video image of the eye to determine the gaze direction of the eye. These image processing capabilities are enhanced by using a bright eye affect. The bright eye affect is a result of the highly reflective nature of a retina of the eye. The characteristic of the retina causes that a significant amount of a light that enters an eye is reflected back through the pupil. When light shines into an eye along the axis of a camera lens, the retina reflects a significant portion of the light back to the camera. The pupil appears as a bright disk to the camera. This effect allows the pupil to be readily imaged and tracked. Eye tracking devices have been used for weapon control, market research, and as enablement for the disabled.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    The present invention provides a display system for providing a high resolution area in a region where a user is looking at a display screen of a display device.  
           [0006]    The present invention provides an apparatus comprising:  
           [0007]    an eye tracking system for determining an eye-gaze direction line of a user looking at a display screen of a display device;  
           [0008]    an eye-gaze tracking module for extracting the eye-gaze direction from the eye tracking system and for determining an intersection point where the eye-gaze direction line intersects with the display screen;  
           [0009]    wherein the eye-gaze tracking module sends the intersection point data to a scalable video decoder; and  
           [0010]    wherein the scalable video decoder receives an encoded video stream and provides a first set of higher video resolution data to a first region surrounding the intersection point on the display screen and a second set of lower video resolution data to a second region of the video screen.  
           [0011]    Another embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention comprises:  
           [0012]    an eye tracking system for determining an eye-gaze direction line of a user looking at a display screen of a display device;  
           [0013]    an eye-gaze tracking module for extracting the eye-gaze direction from the eye tracking system and for determining an intersection point where the eye-gaze direction line intersects with the display screen;  
           [0014]    wherein the eye-gaze tracking module sends the intersection point data to a scalable video encoder; and  
           [0015]    wherein the scalable video encoder receives a source video stream and provides an encoded first set of higher video resolution data to a remote video decoder and an encoded second set of lower video resolution data is provided to the remote video decoder.  
           [0016]    The present invention provides a method comprising:  
           [0017]    providing a display screen;  
           [0018]    determining an eye-gaze direction line of a user looking at the display screen;  
           [0019]    determining an intersection point where the eye-gaze direction line intersects with the display screen;  
           [0020]    providing a video stream to a scalable video device; and  
           [0021]    wherein the scalable video device provides a first set of higher video resolution data to a first region surrounding the intersection point on the display screen and a second set of lower video resolution data to a second region of the video screen. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0022]    For an understanding of the present invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of a display system;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 2 illustrates a plan view of a display screen including a first region and a second region of differing resolutions;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 3 illustrates the display screen of FIG. 2 including a plurality of regions with differing resolutions;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of a display system;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 5 illustrates a plan view of another embodiment of a display screen including a first region and a second region of differing resolutions; and  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 6 illustrates the display screen of FIG. 5 including a plurality of regions with differing resolutions. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0029]    [0029]FIG. 1 illustrates a display system  10  including an eye tracking system  12 , an eye-gaze tracking module  14 , a display device  16 , a display screen  18 , and a scalable video decoder  20 . A user  22  gazes along an eye-gaze direction line  24  at the display screen  18  of the display device  16 . The display device  16  may be included in any suitable system (e.g., computer monitor, television, Personal Digital Assistant, etc.). The eye tracking system  12  determines the eye-gaze direction line  24  by any suitable means (e.g., eye pupil movement, infrared, bright eye affect, etc.). The eye tracking system  12  sends the eye-gaze direction line  24  information through a conduit  26  to the eye-gaze tracking module  14 . The eye-gaze tracking module  14  extracts the eye-gaze direction line  24  information and determines an intersection point  28  where the eye-gaze direction line  24  intersects with the display screen  18  (FIGS. 1, 2 and  3 ). The scalable video decoder  20  receives the intersection point  28  data from the eye-gaze tracking module  14  through the conduit  30 . The scalable video decoder  20  receives an encoded video stream  32  from an encoded video source  34 . The encoded video source  34  may be any suitable source (e.g., digital versatile disk, high definition TV broadcast, internet, tape recorder, computer system, etc.). The encoded video stream  32  is carried from the encoded video source  34  through the conduit  36  to the scalable video decoder  20 . The encoded video stream  32  may use any suitable video compression algorithm (e.g., MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, etc.). MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 are compression standards of the Moving Picture Experts Group, and H.263 is a International Telecommunication Union compression standard.  
         [0030]    The scalable video decoder  20  generates a first set of “foveal” vision or higher resolution data  38  and a second set of “peripheral” vision or lower resolution data  40 . The second set of lower resolution data  40  may optionally include data producing a lower brightness image than the first set of higher resolution data  38 . The first set of higher resolution data  38  and the second set of lower resolution data  40  are sent through the conduit  42  to the display device  16 .  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 2 illustrates the display screen  18  of the display device  16 . The display screen  18  displays the first set of higher resolution data  38  in a first region  44  surrounding the intersection point  28 . The intersection point  28  is the location where the user&#39;s  22  eye-gaze direction line  24  is intersecting with the display screen  18 . The second set of lower resolution data  40  is displayed in a second region  46  of the display screen  18 . The second region  46  surrounds the first region  44  in the display screen  18 . Additionally, the second region  46  of the display screen  18  may be dimmer than the first region  44  of the display screen  18 . The signal bandwidth and the bits of data necessary to create the screen display  18  is reduced by having the first and second regions  44  and  46  with different resolutions. For example, if the first and second regions  44 ,  46  where both at a high resolution of the 1024×780 pixels, the bandwidth and bits of data necessary would be greater than if the first region  44  had a resolution equivalent to 1024×780 pixels but the second region had a resolution equivalent to 640×480 pixels.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of a display screen  18 A with the first region  44  surrounded by the second region  46  including a plurality of regions  48 ,  50  and  52 . The regions  48 - 52  have a resolution lower than the resolution of the first region  44 .  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of a display system  10 A. The display system  10 A includes the eye tracking system  12 , the display device  16 , the display screen  18 B, the eye-gaze tracking module  14 , a scalable video encoder  54 , and a remote video decoder  56 . A user  22 A gazes along the eye-gaze direction line  24  at the display screen  18 B of the display device  16 . The eye tracking system  12  determines the eye-gaze direction line  24  by any suitable means (e.g., eye pupil movement, infrared, bright eye affect, etc.). The eye tracking system  12  sends the eye-gaze direction line  24  information through conduit  26  to the eye-gaze tracking module  14 . The eye-gaze tracking module  14  extracts the eye-gaze direction line  24  information and determines the intersection point  28  where the eye-gaze direction line  24  intersects with the display screen  18 B (FIGS. 4, 5, and  6 ). The scalable video encoder  54  receives the intersection point  28  data from the eye-gaze tracking module  14  through the conduit  30 A. The scalable video encoder  54  receives a source video stream  60  from a video source  58 . The video source may be any suitable source (e.g., camera, video cassette recorder, television, etc.). The source video stream  60  is carried from the video source  58  to the scalable video encoder  54  through a conduit  62 .  
         [0034]    The scalable video encoder  54  generates a first set of encoded higher resolution data  38 A and a second set of encoded lower resolution data  40 A. The first set of encoded higher resolution data  38 A and the second set of encoded lower resolution data  40 A may use any suitable video compression algorithm (e.g., MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.263, etc.). The second set of encoded lower resolution data  40 A may optionally include data producing a lower brightness image than the first set of encoded higher resolution data  38 A. The first set of encoded higher resolution data  38 A and the second set of encoded lower resolution data  40 A are sent through a conduit  64  to the remote video decoder  56 . The video decoder  56  decodes the first set of encoded higher resolution data  38 A and the second set of encoded lower resolution data  40 A and transmits the first set of higher resolution data  38  and the second set of lower resolution data  40  through conduit  66  to the display device  16 .  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 5 illustrates the display screen  18 B of the display device  16 . The display screen  18  displays the first set of higher resolution data  40  in a first region  44 A surrounding the intersection point  28 . The intersection point  28  is the location where the user&#39;s  22 A eye-gaze direction line  24  is intersecting with the display screen  18 B. The second set of lower resolution data  40  is displayed in a second region  46 A of the display screen  18 B. The bandwidth and bits of data necessary to create the screen display  18 B is reduced by having the first region  44 A exhibit a higher resolution than the second region  46 A.  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 6 illustrates another embodiment of a display screen  18 C with the first region  44 A surrounded by the second region  46 A including a plurality of regions  68 ,  70  and  72 . The regions  68 - 72  have a resolution lower than the resolution of the first region  44 A. Optionally, the regions  68 - 72  may be dimmer than the first region  44 A.  
         [0037]    While embodiments of the present invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, many modifications and changes will become apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, the display device  16  may be included in any suitable system (e.g., computer monitor, television, Personal Digital Assistant, etc.). Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to encompass all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of this invention.