The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate an e$cient camera calibration method for vision-based head tracking. Tracking head movements is important in the design of an eye-controlled human/computer interface. A vision-based head tracking system is proposed to allow the user's head movements in the design of the eye-controlled human/computer interface. We propose an e$cient camera calibration method to track the three-dimensional position and orientation of the user's head accurately. We also evaluate the performance of the proposed method and the in#uence of the con"guration of calibration points on the performance. The experimental error analysis results showed that the proposed method can provide more accurate and stable pose (i.e. position and orientation) of the camera than the direct linear transformation method which has been used in camera calibration. The results for this study can be applied to the tracking of head movements related to the eye-controlled human/computer interface and the virtual reality technology.
2000 Academic Press KEYWORDS: vision-based head tracking; eye-controlled human/computer interface; camera calibration.