A system for leveraging user gaze in a user monitoring subregion selection system includes a first camera configured to capture an image of a scene. A pattern generator is configured to generate and project a pattern onto a surface of at least one of a user's eyes. A sensor is configured to obtain an image of the pattern reflected from at least one of the user's eyes. In an alternate implementation, the pattern generator may be omitted, and the sensor may be a stereo user facing camera. A gaze estimation and scene mapping module is configured to estimate a gaze direction of the user using the image captured by the user facing sensor and to map the estimated gaze direction to the image of the scene based on a location of an object of interest within the scene. A subregion selection module is configured to select a subregion of the image of the scene based on the mapped user gaze direction.