Low-Cost Eye-Tracking-like Control of a PC: Hardware Realization and Interpreting Data

Head tracking is used in research: in many studies, the position of the eyes is measured, for instance in usability studies. Other research shows that head tracking has applications in distance education and video conferencing. Another application of head tracking is in Virtual Reality, where the position of the head influences the image the user is looking at. Yet another head tracking application is in games, where the position of the head is used to control parts of the games, most likely, but not limited to, the view of the user (i.e., looking around corners, looking left and right and looking up and down). Head tracking is also used in animation. As a Bachelor project we made a low-cost solution for head tracking for the PC using a WiiMote and self-made glasses with IR-LEDs, using a Bluetooth connection. We will explain the choice for this hardware in the chapter Materials and Hardware Realization. Normally a PC is controlled using a keyboard and a mouse. We aim to make a low-cost alternative to the use of the mouse. This alternative may help people with a disability to their arms or hands to control a PC. Also, our project could be used in one of the applications mentioned above. In this project we made the software which retrieves the data perceived by IR-sensors in the WiiMote, based on the position of the IR-LEDs. This data is then filtered and interpreted. This thesis will concentrate on the hardware components, the realization and implementation of the hardware components and technical details of the hardware. On the software side, this thesis will concentrate on the interpretation of the filtered points. Existing solutions for head tracking have several disadvantages: we will discuss a few commercially available products and look at the advantages and disadvantages in detail. As a case study we have decided to play a game with our head. The game we were able to play was Portal, by Valve Software.