Although many kinds of methods for tracking human gaze position in order as human-computer interface and virtual
reality have been developed and applied, there has no method of gaze tracking as human-TV interface of internet
protocol television (IPTV) at a distance. That is due to many limitations of camera optics and illumination since the
natural viewing distance is relatively far as almost 2m. To overcome such limitation, a new gaze tracking system and
method at a distance for controlling IPTV is proposed. Our method is novel in the following four ways compared to
previous work. First, this research is the first one of gaze tracking at a distance. Second, in order to solve the
limitation of camera optics at a distance, we use a zoom lens for acquiring enough eye image resolution. Third, in
order to directly estimate gaze position without complicate camera calibrations, we used only geometric information
about pupil and four cornea specular reflections from 2D eye image. Fourth, by using infrared illuminators and NIR
pass filter, the pupil region becomes distinctive in the input image irrespective of the change of environmental visible
light. Experimental results with an IPTV of 60 inch wide screen (16:9) showed that the proposed system could be
used as a new interface for controlling IPTV.