Patent ID: 8406479

Claim:
A gaze direction detecting apparatus that detects a gaze direction of a subject based on an image including at least part of the subject, comprising: a feature position calculator that extracts position information of a left pupil of the subject and position information of a right pupil of the subject from the image, and calculates position information of a first middle point between the position information of the left pupil and the position information of the right pupil; a reference position calculator that extracts facial parts symmetrically existing in the subject in the image and calculates position information of a second middle point between position information of one facial part and position information of an other facial part, the one facial part and the other facial part being different than the left pupil and the right pupil; and a gaze direction calculator that calculates a first gaze direction of the subject based on the position information of the first middle point, the position information of the second middle point, and a predetermined radius of an eyeball.