title: Blinking supervision in a working environment.
abstract: The health of the ocular surface requires blinks of the eye to be frequent in order to provide moisture and to renew the tear film. However, blinking frequency has been shown to decrease in certain conditions such as when subjects are conducting tasks with high cognitive and visual demands. These conditions are becoming more common as people work or spend their leisure time in front of video display terminals. Supervision of blinking frequency in such environments is possible, thanks to the availability of computer-integrated cameras. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to develop an algorithm for the detection of eye blinks and to test it, in a number of videos captured, while subjects are conducting a variety of tasks in front of the computer. The sensitivity of the algorithm for blink detection was found to be of 87.54% (range 30% to 100%), with a mean false-positive rate of 0.19% (range 0% to 1.7%), depending on the illumination conditions during which the image was captured and other computer–user spatial configurations. The current automatic process is based on a partly modified pre-existing eye detection and image processing algorithms and consists of four stages that are aimed at eye detection, eye tracking, iris detection and segmentation, and iris height/width ratio assessment.
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Advanced Control Systems Research Group, Rambla Sant Nebridi, 10, 08222 Terrassa, Spain.
authors.forename: Bernardo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Morcego
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Department of Optics and Optometry, School of Optics and Optometry, c/Violinista Vellsolà, 37, 08222 Terrassa, Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Argilés
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Advanced Control Systems Research Group, Rambla Sant Nebridi, 10, 08222 Terrassa, Spain.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cabrerizo
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Department of Optics and Optometry, School of Optics and Optometry, c/Violinista Vellsolà, 37, 08222 Terrassa, Spain.
authors.forename: Genís
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cardona
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Advanced Control Systems Research Group, Rambla Sant Nebridi, 10, 08222 Terrassa, Spain.
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Department of Optics and Optometry, School of Optics and Optometry, c/Violinista Vellsolà, 37, 08222 Terrassa, Spain.
authors.forename: Elisabet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pérez-Cabré
authors.affiliation: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Department of Optics and Optometry, School of Optics and Optometry, c/Violinista Vellsolà, 37, 08222 Terrassa, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gispets
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D015352:Dry Eye Syndromes; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007498:Iris / Q000502:physiology; D017132:Workplace