A 3D Morphable Model of the Eye Region

Abstract

We present the first 3D morphable model that includes the eyes, enabling gaze estimation and gaze re-targetting from a single image. Morphable face models are a powerful tool and are used for a range of tasks including avatar animation and facial expression transfer. However, previous work has avoided the eyes, even though they play an important role in human communication. We built a new morphable model of the facial eye-region from high-quality head scan data, and combined this with a parametric eyeball model constructed from anatomical measurements and iris photos. We fit our models to an input RGB image, solving for shape, texture, pose, and scene illumination simultaneously. This provides us with an estimate of where a person is looking in a 3D scene without per-user calibration - a still unsolved problem in computer vision. It also allows us to re-render a person's eyes with different parameters, thus redirecting their perceived attention.