In this paper, we introduce a new approach for real-time 3D face pose discrimination based on active IR illumination from a monocular view of the camera. Under the IR illumination, the pupils appear bright. We develop algorithms for efficient and robust detection and tracking pupils in real time. Based on the geometric distortions of pupils under different face orientations, an eigen eye feature space is built based on training data that captures the relationship between 3D face orientation and the geometric features of the pupils. The 3D face pose for an input query image is subsequently classified using the eigen eye feature space.