Patent ID: 8345922

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting a pupil comprising: acquisition means for acquiring an image provided by capturing a face using a camera; eye detection means for detecting an eye from the image acquired by the acquisition means; edge detection means for detecting an edge in a region of the eye detected by the eye detection means; pupil detection means for detecting a pupil from the edge detected by the edge detection means; eye shape detection means for detecting as an eye shape an outline of an upper eyelid of the eye; and selection means for selecting only an effective edge along the pupil by removing an edge removal region from the edge detected by the edge detection means, the edge removal region being defined as an area between (i) the outline of the upper eyelid detected by the eye shape detection means and (ii) a line located below the outline of the upper eyelid by a predetermined amount, wherein the pupil detection means detects the pupil by applying a circle transformation to the effective edge selected by the selection means.