Improvements to gaze-contingent visual display systems

描述（由申请人提供）：视注视而定的视觉显示系统将眼睛或注视跟踪系统与视觉刺激的显示器连接，以根据观看者看向何处来改变所显示的图像。 自近40年前引入以来，它们已被用于解决视觉研究的许多领域。 它们还被用于临床评估设备和其他医疗应用，包括康复。 最好 观察者的视图将响应于注视变化而即时更新。 然而，所有这样的系统在注视改变和视图更新之间引入滞后：系统延迟。 如果系统等待时间足够长，则可能会干扰视注视而定的体验。对于大多数视注视而定的显示系统来说，最困难的情况发生在扫视（非常快）的眼睛运动中。 在目前的最佳实践中，系统组件内的延迟可能导致注视和刺激之间的严重不匹配，这在较大的眼球运动中更糟。 最近，我们开发了一种压缩指数模型来预测扫视眼球运动，允许显示器根据预测进行更新。 扫视预测，当与系统延迟的知识相结合，产生较小的误差，在凝视的偶然显示。 当我们开发该模型时，我们发现具有弯曲路径（假设是直的）或非常规速度分布（预期模式是近似对称的上升然后下降）的扫视。 这样的扫视导致额外的显示错误，并且考虑到扫视的弹道性质，这是不期望的。 目的1：调查条件下，这些非标准的扫视发生由于弯曲的路径和非常规的速度分布。 这将有助于理解眼跳的产生和控制。 目标二：开发一种算法，是强大的偏离先前的预测结合卡尔曼滤波器与我们证明的压缩指数模型。 通过校正弯曲的扫视路径、非常规加速度和与预期轨迹的其他偏差，这些预测算法将减少或消除更新滞后。 更新滞后对视觉任务表现的影响还不为人所知，因此在过去的凝视条件实验中，问题的程度还没有确定。 目标3：在三项以不同方式使用凝视相关显示的研究中，评估扫视眼动预测对补偿系统延迟的影响。 这些研究将基于流行的凝视相关范式，并将揭示滞后如何影响他们每个人。 这里开发的方法预计将成为标准的方法，用于控制显示器，扫视眼球运动的反应，从而在许多领域，从阅读到机器人康复具有广泛的影响。 这个项目是罗素·伍兹和罗刚在哈佛医学院马萨诸塞州眼耳科谢彭斯眼科研究所的合作。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Gaze-contingent visual display systems connect an eye- or gaze-tracking system with a display of the visual stimulus, to change the displayed image as a function of where the viewer looks. Since their introduction almost 40 years ago, they have been used to address many areas of vision research. They have also been used in clinical assessment devices and other medical applications, including rehabilitation. Ideally, the observer's view would be instantaneously updated in response to gaze changes. However, all such systems introduce a lag between the gaze change and the view update: the system latency. If the system latency is sufficient, it may interfere with the gaze-contingent experience The most difficult situation for most gaze-contingent display systems occurs with saccadic (very fast) eye movements. With current best practices, delays within the components of the system can lead to substantial mismatches between gaze and stimulus, which are worse with larger eye movements. Recently, we developed a compressed-exponential model to predict saccadic eye movements, allowing the display to be updated based on the prediction. Saccade prediction, when combined with knowledge of system latency, produces smaller errors in gaze-contingent displays. As we developed that model, we found saccades that had a curved path (assumption is straight) or a non-conventional velocity profile (expected pattern is approximately symmetric rise then fall). Such saccades cause additional display errors and are not expected given the ballistic nature of saccades. Aim 1: To investigate conditions under which these non-standard saccades occur due to curved paths and non-conventional velocity profiles. This will inform understanding of saccade generation and control. Aim 2: To develop an algorithm that is robust to departures from prior predictions by combining the Kalman filter with our proven compressed-exponential model. By correcting for curved saccade paths, non-conventional accelerations and other deviations from the expected trajectory, these prediction algorithms will reduce or eliminate update lag. The effect that update lag has on visual task performance is not well known, and therefore the extent of the problem in past gaze-contingent experiments has not been determined. Aim 3: To evaluate the effects of saccadic eye-movement prediction to compensate for system latency in three studies that use gaze- contingent displays in different ways. The studies will be based on popular gaze-contingent paradigms, and will reveal how the lag affects each of them. The methods developed here are expected to become the standard approaches for controlling displays that respond to saccadic eye movements, thereby having wide impact in many fields, from reading to robotics to rehabilitation. This project is a collaboration between Russell Woods and Gang Luo, at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School.