Blue Eye Technology

INTRODUCTION
Imagine yourself in a world where humans interact with computers. You are sitting in front of your personal computer that
can listen, talk, or even scream aloud. It has the ability together information about you and interact with you through special
techniques like facial recognition, speech recognition, etc. It can even understand your emotions at the touch of the mouse. It verifies
your identity, feels your presents and starts interacting with you .You ask the computer to dial to your friend at his office. It realizes
the urgency of the situation through the mouse, dials your friend at his office, and establishes a connection.

Human cognition depends primarily on the ability to perceive, interpret, and integrate audio-visuals and sensoring
information. Adding extraordinary perceptual abilities to computers would enable computers to work together with human beings as
intimate partners. Researchers are attempting to add more capabilities to computers that will allow them to interact like humans,
recognise human presents, talk, listen, or even guess their feelings.

The BLUE EYE technology aims at creating computational machines that have perceptual and sensory ability like those of
human beings. It uses non-obtrusive sensing method, employing most modern video cameras and microphones to identify the user
actions through the use of imparted sensory abilities. The machine can understand what a user wants, where he is looking at, and even
realize his physical or emotional states.

EMOTION MOUSE
One goal of human computer interaction (HCI) is to make an adaptive, smart computer system. This type of project could
possibly include gesture recognition, facial recognition, eye tracking, speech recognition, etc. Another non-invasive way to obtain
information about a person is through touch. People use their computers to obtain, store and manipulate data using their computer. In
order to start creating smart computers, the computer must start gaining information about the user. Our proposed method for gaining
user information through touch is via a computer input device, the mouse. From the physiological data obtained from the user, an
emotional state may be determined which would then be related to the task the user is currently doing on the computer. Over a period
of time, a user model will be built in order to gain a sense of the user's personality. The scope of the project is to have the computer
adapt to the user in order to create a better working environment where the user is more productive. The first steps towards realizing
this goal are described here.
THEORY
Six participants were trained to exhibit the facial expressions of the six basic emotions. While each participant exhibited
these expressions, the physiological changes associated with affect were assessed. The measures taken were GSR, heart rate, skin
temperature and general somatic activity (GSA).

These data were then subject to two analyses. For the first analysis, a multidimensional scaling (MDS) procedure was used
to determine the dimensionality of the data. This analysis suggested that the physiological similarities and dissimilarities of the six
emotional states fit within a four dimensional model.

For the second analysis, a discriminant function analysis was used to determine the mathematic functions that would
distinguish the six emotional states. This analysis suggested that all four physiological variables made significant, non redundant
contributions to the functions that distinguish the six states. Moreover, these analyses indicate that these four physiological measures
are sufficient to determine reliably a person’s specific emotional state. Because of our need to incorporate these measurements into a
small, non-intrusive form, we will explore taking these measurements from the hand. The amount of conductivity of the skin is best
taken from the fingers. However, the other measures may not be as obvious or robust. We hypothesize that changes in the temperature
of the finger are reliable for prediction of emotion. We also hypothesize the GSA can be measured by change in movement in the
computer mouse. Our efforts to develop a robust pulse meter are not discussed here.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
An experiment was designed to test the above hypotheses. The four physiological readings measured were heart rate,
temperature, GSR and somatic movement. The heart rate was measured through a commercially available chest strap sensor. The
temperature was measured with a thermocouple attached to a digital multi meter (DMM). The GSR was also measured with a DMM.
The somatic movement was measured by recording the computer mouse movements.

Method
Six people participated in this study (3 male, 3 female). The experiment was within subject design and order of
presentation was counter-balanced across participants.

Procedure
Participants were asked to sit in front of the computer and hold the temperature and GSR sensors in their left hand hold the
mouse with their right hand and wore the chest sensor. The resting (baseline) measurements were recorded for five minutes and then
the participant was instructed to act out one emotion for five minutes. The emotions consisted of: anger, fear, sadness, disgust,
happiness and surprise. The only instruction for acting out the emotion was to show the emotion in their facial expressions.
Results
The data for each subject consisted of scores for four physiological assessments [GSA, GSR, pulse, and skin temperature,
for each of the six emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise)] across the five minute baseline and test sessions.
GSA data was sampled 80 times per second, GSR and temperature were reported approximately 3-4 times per second and pulse was
recorded as a beat was detected, approximately 1 time per second. We first calculated the mean score for each of the baseline and test
sessions. To account for individual variance in physiology, we calculated the difference between the baseline and test scores. Scores
that differed by more than one and a half standard deviations from the mean were treated as missing. By this criterion, twelve score
were removed from the analysis.

In order to determine whether our measures of physiology could discriminate among the six different emotions, the data
were analyzed with a discriminant function analysis. The four physiological difference scores were the discriminating variables and
the six emotions were the discriminated groups. The variables were entered into the equation simultaneously, and four canonical
discriminant functions were calculated. To determine the effectiveness of these functions, we used them to predict the group
membership for each set of physiological data.

The results show the theory behind the Emotion mouse work is fundamentally sound. The physiological measurements
were correlated to emotions using a correlation model. The correlation model is derived from a calibration process in which a baseline
attribute-to emotion correlation is rendered based on statistical analysis of calibration signals generated by users having emotions that
are measured or otherwise known at calibration time. Now that we have proven the method, the next step is to improve the hardware.
Instead of using cumbersome multi meters to gather information about the user, it will be better to use smaller and less intrusive units.

We plan to improve our infrared pulse detector which can be placed inside the body of the mouse. Also, a framework for
the user modeling needs to be developed in order to correctly handle all of the information after it has been gathered. There are other
possible applications for the Emotion technology other than just increased productivity for a desktop computer user. Other domains
such as entertainment, health and the communications and the automobile industry could find this technology useful for other
purposes.

MANUAL AND GAZE INPUT CASCADED (MAGIC) POINTING

This work explores a new direction in utilizing eye gaze for computer input. Gaze tracking has long been considered as an
alternative or potentially superior pointing method for computer input. We believe that many fundamental limitations exist with
traditional gaze pointing. In particular, it is unnatural to overload a perceptual channel such as vision with a motor control task. We
therefore propose an alternative approach, dubbed MAGIC (Manual and Gaze Input Cascaded) pointing. With such an approach,
pointing appears to the user to be a manual task, used for fine manipulation and selection. However, a large portion of the cursor
movement is eliminated by warping the cursor to the eye gaze area, which encompasses the target. Two specific MAGIC pointing
techniques, one conservative and one liberal, were designed, analyzed, and implemented with an eye tracker we developed. They were
then tested in a pilot study. This early stage exploration showed that the MAGIC pointing techniques might offer many advantages,
including reduced physical effort and fatigue as compared to traditional manual pointing, greater accuracy and naturalness than
traditional gaze pointing, and possibly faster speed than manual pointing. The pros and cons of the two techniques are discussed in
light of both performance data and subjective reports.

In our view, there are two fundamental shortcomings to the existing gaze pointing techniques, regardless of the maturity of
eye tracking technology. First, given the one-degree size of the fovea and the subconscious jittery motions that the eyes constantly
produce, eye gaze is not precise enough to operate UI widgets such as scroll bars, hyper links, and slider. At a 25-inch viewing
distance to the screen, one degree of arc corresponds to 0.44 in, which is twice the size of a typical scroll bar and much greater than
the size of a typical character.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, the eye, as one of our primary perceptual devices, has not evolved to be a control
organ. Sometimes its movements are voluntarily controlled while at other times it is driven by external events. With the target
selection by dwell time method, considered more natural than selection by blinking, one has to be conscious of where one looks and
how long one looks at an object. If one does not look at a target continuously for a set threshold (e.g., 200 ms), the target will not be
successfully selected. On the other hand, if one stares at an object for more than the set threshold, the object will be selected,
regardless of the user’s intention. In some cases there is not an adverse effect to a false target selection. Other times it can be annoying
and counter-productive (such as unintended jumps to a web page). Furthermore, dwell time can only substitute for one mouse click.
There are often two steps to target activation. A single click selects the target (e.g., an application icon) and a double click (or a
different physical button click) opens the icon (e.g., launches an application). To perform both steps with dwell time is even more
difficult. In short, to load the visual perception channel with a motor control task seems fundamentally at odds with users’ natural
mental model in which the eye searches for and takes in information and the hand produces output that manipulates external objects.
Other than for disabled users, who have no alternative, using eye gaze for practical pointing does not appear to be very promising.
Are there interaction techniques that utilize eye movement to assist the control task but do not force the user to be overly
conscious of his eye movement? We wanted to design a technique in which pointing and selection remained primarily a manual
control task but were also aided by gaze tracking. Our key idea is to use gaze to dynamically redefine (warp) the “home” position of
the pointing cursor to be at the vicinity of the target, which was presumably what the user was looking at, thereby effectively reducing
the cursor movement amplitude needed for target selection.

Once the cursor position had been redefined, the user would need to only make a small movement to, and click on, the
target with a regular manual input device. In other words, we wanted to achieve Manual and Gaze Input Cascaded (MAGIC) pointing,
or Manual Acquisition with Gaze Initiated Cursor. There are many different ways of designing a MAGIC pointing technique. Critical
to its effectiveness is the identification of the target the user intends to acquire. We have designed two MAGIC pointing techniques,
one liberal and the other conservative in terms of target identification and cursor placement. The liberal approach is to warp the cursor
to every new object the user looks at (See Figure 1).
 Fig.1: LIBERAL MAGIC POINTING TECHNIQUES

The user can then take control of the cursor by hand near (or on) the target, or ignore it and search for the next target.
Operationally, a new object is defined by sufficient distance (e.g., 120 pixels) from the current cursor position, unless the cursor is in a
controlled motion by hand. Since there is a 120-pixel threshold, the cursor will not be warped when the user does continuous
manipulation such as drawing. Note that this MAGIC pointing technique is different from traditional eye gaze control, where the user
uses his eye to point at targets either without a cursor or with a cursor that constantly follows the jittery eye gaze motion. The liberal
approach may appear “pro-active,” since the cursor waits readily in the vicinity of or on every potential target. The user may move the
cursor once he decides to acquire the target he is looking at. On the other hand, the user may also feel that the cursor is over-active
when he is merely looking at a target, although he may gradually adapt to ignore this behavior. The more conservative MAGIC
pointing technique we have explored does not warp a cursor to a target until the manual input device has been actuated. Once the
manual input device has been actuated, the cursor is warped to the gaze area exported by the eye tracker. This area should be on or in
the vicinity of the target. The user would then steer the cursor annually towards the target to complete the target acquisition. As
illustrated in Figure 2, to minimize directional uncertainty after the cursor appears in the conservative technique, we introduced an
“intelligent” bias. Instead of being placed at the center of the gaze area, the cursor position is offset to the intersection of the manual
actuation vector and the boundary f the gaze area. This means that once warped, the cursor is likely to appear in motion towards the
target, regardless of how the user actually actuated the manual input device. We hoped that with the intelligent bias the user would not
have to gaze position reported by eye tracker Eye-tracking boundary with 95% confidence True target will be within the circle with
95% probability. The cursor is warped to eye tracking position, which is on or near the true target Previous cursor position, far from
target (e.g., 200 pixels) Figure 1.
 Fig.2: CONSERVATIVE MAGIC TECHNIQUE.

The liberal MAGIC pointing technique: cursor is placed in the vicinity of a target that the user fixates on. Actuate input
device, observe the cursor position and decide in which direction to steer the cursor. The cost to this method is the increased manual
movement amplitude.

Figure 2. The conservative MAGIC pointing technique with “intelligent offset” To initiate a pointing trial, there are two
strategies available to the user. One is to follow “virtual inertia:” move from the cursor’s current position towards the new target the
user is looking at. This is likely the strategy the user will employ, due to the way the user interacts with today’s interface. The
alternative strategy, which may be more advantageous but takes time to learn, is to ignore the previous cursor position and make a
motion which is most convenient and least effortful to the user for a given input device.

The goal of the conservative MAGIC pointing method is the following. Once the user looks at a target and moves the input
device, the cursor will appear “out of the blue” in motion towards the target, on the side of the target opposite to the initial actuation
vector. In comparison to the liberal approach, this conservative approach has both pros and cons. While with this technique the cursor
would never be over-active and jump to a place the user does not intend to acquire, it may require more hand-eye coordination effort.
Both the liberal and the conservative MAGIC pointing techniques offer the following potential advantages.

1. Reduction of manual stress and fatigue, since the cross screen long-distance cursor movement is eliminated from manual control.
2. Practical accuracy level. In comparison to traditional pure gaze pointing whose accuracy is fundamentally limited by the nature of
eye movement, the MAGIC pointing techniques let the hand complete the pointing task, so they can be as accurate as any other
manual input techniques.
3. A more natural mental model for the user. The user does not have to be aware of the role of the eye gaze. To the user, pointing
continues to be a manual task, with a cursor conveniently appearing where it needs to be.
4. Speed. Since the need for large magnitude pointing operations is less than with pure manual cursor control, it is possible that
MAGIC pointing will be faster than pure manual pointing.
5. Improved subjective speed and ease-of-use. Since the manual pointing amplitude is smaller, the user may perceive the MAGIC
pointing system to operate faster and more pleasantly than pure manual control, even if it operates at the same speed or more slowly.
The fourth point wants further discussion.

According to the well accepted Fitts’ Law , manual pointing time is logarithmically proportional to the A/W ratio, where A
is the movement distance and W is the target size. In other words, targets which are smaller or farther away take longer to acquire.

For MAGIC pointing, since the target size remains the same but the cursor movement distance is shortened, the pointing
time can hence be reduced. It is less clear if eye gaze control follows Fitts’ Law. In Ware and Mikaelian’s study, selection time was
shown to be logarithmically proportional to target distance, thereby conforming to Fitts’ Law. To the contrary, Silbert and Jacob found
that trial completion time with eye tracking input increases little with distance, therefore defying Fitts’ Law. In addition to problems
with today’s eye tracking systems, such as delay, error, and inconvenience, there may also be many potential human factor
disadvantages to the MAGIC pointing techniques we have proposed, including the following:

1. With the more liberal MAGIC pointing technique, the cursor warping can be overactive at times, since the cursor moves to the new
gaze location whenever the eye gaze moves more than a set distance (e.g., 120 pixels) away from the cursor. This could be particularly
distracting when the user is trying to read. It is possible to introduce additional constraint according to the context. For example, when
the user’s eye appears to follow a text reading pattern, MAGIC pointing can be automatically suppressed.

2. With the more conservative MAGIC pointing technique, the uncertainty of the exact location at which the cursor might appear may
force the user, especially a novice, to adopt a cumbersome strategy: take a touch (use the manual input device to activate the cursor),
wait (for the cursor to appear), and move (the cursor to the target manually). Such a strategy may prolong the target acquisition time.
The user may have to learn a novel hand-eye coordination pattern to be efficient with this technique. Gaze position reported by eye
tracker Eye-tracking boundary with 95% confidence True target will be within the circle with 95% probability The cursor is warped to
the boundary of the gaze area, along the initial actuation vector Previous cursor position, far from target Initial manual actuation
vector

3. With pure manual pointing techniques, the user, knowing the current cursor location, could conceivably perform his motor acts in
parallel to visual search. Motor action may start as soon as the user’s gaze settles on a target. With MAGIC pointing techniques, the
motor action computation (decision) cannot start until the cursor appears. This may negate the time saving gained from the MAGIC
pointing technique’s reduction of movement amplitude. Clearly, experimental (implementation and empirical) work is needed to
validate, refine, or invent alternative MAGIC pointing techniques.

THE SIMPLE USER INTERST TRACKER (SUITOR)

Computers would have been much more powerful, had they gained perceptual and sensory abilities of the living beings on
the earth. What needs to be developed is an intimate relationship between the computer and the humans. And the Simple User Interest
Tracker (SUITOR) is a revolutionary approach in this direction.
By observing the Web page a user is browsing, the SUITOR can help by fetching more information at his desktop. By simply noticing
where the user’s eyes focus on the computer screen, the SUITOR can be more precise in determining his topic of interest. It can even
deliver relevant information to a handheld device. The success lies in how much the suitor can be intimate to the user. IBM’s Blue Eye
research project began with a simple question, according to Myron Flickner, a manager in Almaden's USER group: Can we exploit
nonverbal cues to create more effective user interfaces?

One such cue is gaze—the direction in which a person is looking. Flickner and his colleagues have created some new
techniques for tracking a person's eyes and have incorporated this gaze-tracking technology into two prototypes. One, called SUITOR
(Simple User Interest Tracker), fills a scrolling ticker on a computer screen with information related to the user's current task.
SUITOR knows where you are looking, what applications you are running, and what Web pages you may be browsing. "If I'm reading
a Web page about IBM, for instance," says Paul Maglio, the Almaden cognitive scientist who invented SUITOR, "the system presents
the latest stock price or business news stories that could affect IBM. If I read the headline off the ticker, it pops up the story in a
browser window. If I start to read the story, it adds related stories to the ticker. That's the whole idea of an attentive system—one that
attends to what you are doing, typing, reading, so that it can attend to your information needs."

CONCLUSION

The nineties witnessed quantum leaps interface designing for improved man machine interactions. The BLUE EYE
technology ensures a convenient way of simplifying the life by providing more delicate and user friendly facilities in computing
devices. Now that we have proven the method, the next step is to improve the hardware. Instead of using cumbersome modules to
gather information about the user, it will be better to use smaller and less intrusive units. The day is not far when this technology will
push its way into your house hold, making you more lazy. It may even reach your hand held mobile device. Any way this is only a
technological forecast.