JPH08266576A - Intention transmitting device by eye-ball motion - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an intention transmitting device by eye-ball motion capable of eliminating the motility measurement of the head and using anywhere in a room. CONSTITUTION: This device is the intention transmitting device by eye-ball motion and consists of an eye-ball motion measuring instrument 2 which measures the motion of the eye-ball of a user and a photoirradiation device 3 which controls the irradiating direction of light based on a measured result, and it is equipped with a loading part 4 to put the eye-ball motion measuring instrument 2 and the photoirradiation device 3 on the head of the user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device by which an elderly person or a physically handicapped person can use eye movements to convey his / her will to a caregiver or an assistance system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In Japan's aging society, the shortage of caregivers has made it a challenge to promote the independent living of the elderly at home. One of the devices required for that purpose is a communication device for communication and control of an assisting robot.

Usually, when a person conveys his / her intention to a person on the side, the person conveys the intention by voice or by pointing with a finger. However, these means of communication may become unavailable as physical function declines. Therefore, it has been considered that the eyeball movement is used as a function that remains until the end, and it is used as a substitute for pointing with a hand.

[0004] Some of the conventional communication devices using eye movements for the above-mentioned bedridden patients have their heads fixed for the purpose of diagnosis. Further, in order to detect the line of sight by stabilizing the posture by sitting on a chair or the like without restraining the head of the user as shown in FIG. Manufactured). In this device, the measurement result of the eye movement can be loaded into a personal computer, and based on this, the galvano scanner can be driven to control the laser spot position in real time.

[0005]

However, although the head is fixed in the above-mentioned conventional eye movement measurement for the purpose of diagnosis, there is a discomfort in use for daily use.
In addition, in order to completely free the movement of the head, it is necessary to measure the movement of the head in addition to the measurement of the eye movement, but in this case, the measurement items increase and the error is large. In addition, there is a problem that it cannot be used in a room where the head movement measuring device is not provided.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional eye movement communication device, and provides an eye movement communication device that does not require head movement measurement and can be used anywhere in the room. The purpose is to

[0007]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
An eye movement measuring device for measuring the movement of a user's eyeball, and a communication device by eye movement comprising an optical irradiation device for controlling the irradiation direction of light based on the measurement result, wherein the eye movement measuring device and the light It is characterized in that it has a mounting portion for mounting the irradiation device on a user's head.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the eye movement measuring device and the light irradiating device are integrally mounted on the head of the user.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the direction of the eyeball of the user is measured as a relative direction to the head, and the irradiation direction is controlled with the head of the user as a reference. Irrespective of the position or posture of the head, the irradiation position of is coincident with the point gazed by the user.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the relative positional relationship between the eye movement measuring device and the light irradiating device does not change. Therefore, when the same user uses the device, the calibration is performed once. After that, it can be used without calibration thereafter.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an eye movement transmitting device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a communication device 1 according to the present invention includes an eye movement measuring device 2 for measuring eye movement,
A laser pointer 3 for irradiating a laser beam in the direction of the line of sight of the user based on the measurement result of the eye movement, and a mounting portion 4 for mounting the eye movement measuring device 2 and the laser pointer 3 on the head of the user. It is composed of. When the user of this device gazes at the point O, the laser pointer 3 irradiates the gazing point O with laser light.

The eye movement measuring device 2 is a goggle type eye movement measuring device (manufactured by Takei Kiki Kogyo Co., Ltd.) by the scleral reflex method and is located below the two eyes of the user. This scleral reflection method will be described with reference to FIG. An infrared LED 2a for irradiating the user with infrared rays is provided diagonally below the user. Then, one eye of the user is divided into _four regions 2b ₁ , 2b ₂ , 2b ₃ , 2b _4, and photodiodes 2B ₁ , 2B ₂ , 2B ₃ (not shown) for detecting the amount of reflected light from each region, Each 2B ₄ is equipped with goggles. Here, the upper regions 2b ₁ and 2
photodiode 2 for detecting the quantity of reflected light b ₂
B ₁ and 2B ₂ are for measuring the horizontal movement of the eyeball and are coupled to a comparison amplifier 4H for measuring the horizontal movement of the eyeball. On the other hand, the lower area 2
The photodiodes 2B ₃ and 2B ₄ for detecting the reflected light amounts of b ₃ and 2b ₄ are used to measure the vertical movement of the eyeball, and the comparison amplifier 4 for measuring the vertical eye movement is used.
Connected to V.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the eyeball approaches the right side, that is, when the user looks to the left, the area occupied by the black eye is narrowed and the area occupied by the white eye is widened in the area 2b ₁ . Become. On the other hand, in the area 2b ₂ ,
On the contrary, the area occupied by the black eye becomes wider and the area occupied by the white eye becomes narrower. As a result, the amount of reflected light in the region 2b ₁ is larger than that in the region 2b _2, and the voltage generated by the photodiode 2B ₁ is larger than that of the photodiode 2B ₂ . This voltage can be differentiated via the comparison amplifier 4H, and the horizontal position of the eyeball of the user can be represented by a voltage value.

FIG. 5 shows the state of the eyes when the user faces downward. In this case, both the regions 2b ₃ and 2b ₄ are larger in the area occupied by the black eye and smaller in the area occupied by the white eye than in the case of facing the front of FIG. 3, so that reflection occurs in any of these areas. The amount of light is smaller than in the case of FIG. 3, and the photodiode 2B ₃ ,
The voltage generated by 2B ₄ is smaller than that in the case of FIG. This voltage can be added via the comparison amplifier 4V, and the position of the eyeball of the user in the vertical direction can be represented by a voltage value.

The outputs of the comparison amplifiers 4H and 4V are input to the control computer 20 and the rotation angle of the motor for driving the laser pointer 3 is calculated. Assuming that the measurement result of the eye movement is h volt in the horizontal direction and v volt in the vertical direction, the motor rotation angle x in the horizontal direction,
The vertical motor rotation angle y is determined by the following equation. Here, a, b, c, and d are constants determined by the method described later.

[0016]

[Equation 1]

In this way, the motor rotation angle (x, y)
Is determined, a command is sent to the stepping motors 6A and 6B by a motor driver (not shown) to rotate the motor by a predetermined angle. Next, the drive device 5 for driving the laser pointer 3 by the rotation of the motor will be described with reference to FIG. This device 5 includes left and right stepping motors 6
A and 6B and known differential gear mechanisms 11A, 11B, 12 and the like. The output shafts of the motors 6A and 6B are connected to the pinions 7A and 7B, respectively. Gears 7A, 8A, 9
A and 10A form a gear train, and the bevel gear 11A is driven by the motor 6A via this gear train. Similarly, via the right gear train 7B, 8B, 9B, 10B, the bevel gear 1
1B is driven by the motor 6B. Then, the laser irradiation unit 1 which emits laser light having a laser diode 13a at the tip by the differential gear mechanisms 11A, 11B, 12
3 can change the angle in the horizontal direction indicated by the arrow H ′ in FIG. 5 and in the vertical direction indicated by the arrow V ′.

Next, control for causing the direction of the laser pointer 13 to follow the eyeball direction will be described. The direction of the eyeball is
Since it is measured not as an absolute angle but as a voltage value approximately proportional to the angle, it is necessary to first perform calibration to determine the above constants a, b, c, d. This calibration is done by the control computer 20.

As shown in FIG. 7, calibration is performed by using nine points, which are the front, the upper, the lower, the left, and the right, as indexes. First, one point (for example, point P _{5 in} FIG. 7) of the calibration indexes is presented in front of the user by the laser pointer. Then, let the user gaze at the index for a certain period of time, record the measurement result of the eye direction at that time,
This operation is repeated several times. Next, the average value of the measured data is calculated, and this is set as the eyeball direction measurement value corresponding to the direction of the presented laser pointer. For example, the point corresponding to the point P ₅ in FIG. 7 is the point P ₅ ′ in FIG.

The above procedure is repeated for nine points P ₁ to P ₉ of FIG. 7, with the P ₁ 'to P _9' in FIG. 8 as the eye direction measurement values corresponding to these points, nine sets of the laser Pointer direction (P _{1 to} P ₉ ) and eyeball direction (P ₁ 'to P ₉ ')
Get the correspondence of. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, each of the coordinate system of the eyeball direction measurement values and the coordinate system of the direction control of the laser pointer, which is created based on the data of the directions of the nine laser pointer directions and the eyeball direction measurement values, has eight triangles as shown in FIGS. Area (A ₁ 'to A ₈ ' in FIG. 9, A _{1 to} A ₈ in FIG. 9). Then, the following processing is sequentially repeated so that the laser pointer is controlled by following the eyeball direction. (1) Measure the current eye direction of the user. This is designated as point P ′ in FIG. 8, for example. (2) In the eyeball direction measurement coordinate system of FIG. 8, a triangular area including the measured eyeball direction is selected. This triangular area is, for example, the area A ₆ 'in FIG. (3) A triangular area in the laser pointer direction control coordinate system corresponding to the triangular area is selected. This area is, for example, the area A ₆ in FIG. (4) The direction of the laser pointer corresponding to the measured eyeball direction is determined by linear transformation of the vector between the selected triangular areas. The primary conversion of this vector is to convert the vectors h and v in FIG. 11 into vectors x and y, for example. In order to simplify the explanation here, P ₅ , P ₅ '
Are the origins of the xy plane and the hv plane, respectively, and P (x,
y), P ₇ (x ₇ , y ₇ ), P ₈ (x ₈ , y ₈ ), P ′ (h,
v), P ₇ ′ (h ₇ , v ₇ ), P ₈ ′ (h ₈ , v ₈ ), the linear transformation of this vector is performed by the following equation.

[0021]

[Equation 2]

(5) The laser pointer is controlled according to the obtained direction of the laser pointer.

[0023]

According to the invention described in claim 1, since it is not necessary to consider the position and posture of the head when determining the irradiation direction of the light irradiation device, the entire device can be simplified and the device can be simplified. Can be miniaturized.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when used by the same user, it can be continuously used after being calibrated once, so that a communication device convenient for use can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic view of an eye movement communication device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of an eye movement communication device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing an eye movement measuring unit of an eye movement transmitting device according to the present invention.

4 is a schematic diagram showing the principle of eye movement measurement in the eye movement measurement unit of FIG.

5 is a schematic diagram showing the principle of eye movement measurement in the eye movement measurement unit of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a configuration of a laser pointer driving unit of an eye movement willingness communication device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a laser pointer direction control coordinate system in the case of calibrating a laser pointer in an eye movement willingness communication device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an eyeball direction coordinate system in the case of calibrating the laser pointer in the communication device for moving an eyeball according to the present invention.

9 is a diagram showing a triangular area in the laser pointer direction control coordinate system of FIG. 6;

10 is a diagram showing a triangular area corresponding to the triangular area of the laser pointer direction control coordinate system in the eyeball direction coordinate system of FIG. 7;

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the primary conversion of a vector when the direction of the corresponding laser pointer is determined from the measured eyeball direction.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a conventional communication device using eye movements.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 intention transmitting device 2 eye movement measuring device 3 laser pointer 4 intention transmitting device mounting portion 5 laser pointer driving device 6A, 6B stepping motor 7A, 8A, 9A, 10A gear train 7B, 8B, 9B, 10B gear train 11A, 11B, 12 differential gear train

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An eye movement measuring device for measuring eye movement of a user, and an eye movement transmitting device for controlling an irradiation direction of light based on the measurement result. And an attachment device for mounting the light irradiation device on a user's head. 2. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the eye movement measuring device and the light irradiating device are integrally mounted on a user's head.