ETRA 2026 Workshops

The study of eye gaze data has great potential for research in computer programming and computing education, as well as for software engineering practice. The Fourteenth International Workshop on Eye Movements in Programming (EMIP 2026) will focus again on advancing the methodological, theoretical, and applied aspects of eye movements in programming. The goal of the workshop is to further develop the methodology of using eye gaze tracking for programming, both theoretically and in applications. The question of what gaze behavior can tell us about cognitive processes during programming is profoundly related to the role of human factors involved in programming.

Organizers: Jürgen Horst Mottok, Naser Al Madi, Norman Peitek

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has rapidly evolved from a burgeoning technology to a cornerstone of content generation, design, and predictive modeling. Simultaneously, eye-tracking technologies continue to provide unparalleled insights into human attention, perception, and behavior.
Following the success of the inaugural workshop, the 2nd Workshop on Generative AI meets Eye Tracking (GenEAI) aims to further explore the deepening synergies between these fields. As GenAI models become more multimodal, the integration of gaze data offers critical context for alignment, personalization, and intent recognition.
This workshop provides a platform for researchers, practitioners, and developers to share evolving approaches and tools. Crucially, this workshop will expand the discussion on ethical considerations, specifically addressing privacy concerns and the implications of using human gaze behavior to train large foundation models.

Organizers: Yao Rong, Enkelejda Kasneci, Gjergji Kasneci, Yusuke Sugano, Arantxa Villanueva

The Eyes4Access workshop will gather interdisciplinary researchers around the advances of eye-tracking research in accessibility, exploring inclusive technologies, interaction techniques, and real-world digital media, education and cultural scenarios. Building on the successful first edition at ETRA 2025, this second edition expands its scope to encompass emerging technologies including AI-powered accessibility tools and eXtended Reality (XR) environments. Aimed at advancing gaze-based accessibility solutions, Eyes4Access encourages submissions on eye tracking in broadly define accessibility research. The workshop will continue to advance the potential of eye tracking to create inclusive HCI experiences focusing on users with sensory, physical and cognitive impairments. The Eyes4Access workshop will foster community collaboration by summarizing novel eye-tracking research, methods, and applications for accessibility. In general, the workshop outcomes will contribute to societal equity, and drive innovation in assistive technologies.

Organizers: Krzysztof Krejtz, Carlos Duarte, Ann Marcus-Quinn, Izabela Krejtz, Chris J Hughes

There is a growing interest in eye tracking across various communities, including information visualization, scientific visualization, visual analytics, as well as human-computer interaction, applied perception, psychology, cognitive science, security, and mixed reality. Progress in hardware technology and the reduction of costs for eye tracking devices have made this analysis technique accessible to a large population of researchers. Recording the observer’s gaze can reveal how dynamic graphical displays are visually accessed and which information is processed. Nonetheless, standardized practices for technical implementations and data interpretation remain unresolved. With this tenth Workshop on Eye Tracking and Visualization (ETVIS), we intend to follow up on the successful previous workshops (at IEEE VIS 2015 and 2016 and co-located with ETRA 2018-2025) and continue to build a community of eye tracking researchers within and outside the visualization community, covering information visualization, scientific visualization, and visual analytics. We also aim to establish connections to related fields, in particular, in human-computer interaction, cognitive science, psychology, and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). This will promote a robust exchange of established practices and innovative use scenarios. The last editions of the ETVIS workshops demonstrated much interest, and the workshop has become popular among the eye tracking and visualization communities.

Organizers: Kuno Kurzhals, Michael Burch

The Communication by Gaze Interaction (COGAIN) Association is a network of excellence that integrates cutting-edge expertise on interface technologies for the benefit of users with and without disabilities. By integrating research activities such as this annual symposium, the network aims to develop new technologies and systems, improve existing gaze-based interaction techniques, and facilitate the implementation of systems for everyday communication.

Organizers:Pawel Kasprowski, Pavel Manakhov, Per Bækgaard, Prasetia Putra

Reading is a complex cognitive process that is an object of interest in multiple scientific fields from psychology to machine learning. One of the most meaningful ways the cognitive processes behind reading may be analyzed is by tracking the movement of the reader's eyes \cite{rayner1998eye}. It was, in fact, one of the first applications of eye-tracking techniques. Despite being investigated for many years, eye movement during reading is still a hot topic that attracts many researchers. The number of recent papers relating to this subject may serve as good evidence. The aim of the workshop proposed in this document is to provide a common ground for researchers with different backgrounds to exchange their ideas concerning the ways eye movement data may be used to gain deeper knowledge about human reading. We intend to bridge the gap between fundamental eye movement in reading research that investigates the cognitive processes underlying reading (and language comprehension) and technological applications using eye movements in reading to infer information about a reader (e.g., reading proficiency, diagnose dyslexia, etc.) or the stimulus text (document difficulty, etc.). Therefore, we expect submissions from computer scientists, data analysts, cognitive psychologists, psycholinguistics, and the fields of education or translation science.

Organizers: Pawel Kasprowski, Lena A. Jäger, Paul Prasse, David Robert Reich

The growing adoption of wearable smart glasses and AR headsets is enabling a new generation of on-device AI systems that interact naturally with users and their environments. Eye tracking lies at the heart of this evolution, providing real-time measurements of gaze direction, pupil dynamics, and visual attention, critical for truly immersive and responsive experiences. Despite significant advances in gaze estimation algorithms, hardware and embedded systems remain a key bottleneck, preventing efficient always-on deployment on resource-constrained devices.
Recent progress in low-power and high-speed sensing, hardware acceleration, and embedded machine learning offers concrete opportunities to overcome these challenges. These include miniaturized optical modules, capacitive and event-based sensors, FPGA and NPU accelerators, and TinyML frameworks for on-device eye tracking, along with adaptive sensing and processing techniques. The SPHERA workshop will focus on these developments, bringing together researchers and practitioners at the intersection of hardware design, embedded intelligence, and eye tracking. It will explore how innovations in sensors, computing architectures, and resource-aware adaptive processing can enable energy-efficient, low-latency, eye-tracking systems that meet task demands in real-world applications.

Organizers: Marco Cannici, Simone Mentasti, Giulio Marano, Filippo Melloni, Luca Merigo, Marco Carminati, Matteo Matteucci

Quantitative metrics are essential for describing visual behavior in eye tracking research. However, the current landscape of these metrics is fragmented, characterized by inconsistent nomenclature, ambiguous mathematical definitions, and software-specific discrepancies. This lack of consistency hampers reproducibility and hinders newcomers entering the field. The METR 2026 workshop aims to address these challenges by fostering a community dialog to establish a shared understanding of metrics. Rather than imposing rigid standards that may stifle innovation, METR 2026 proposes the creation of a flexible "Living Reference of Eye Tracking Metrics." Building upon the contributions of workshop participants and the preliminary groundwork laid by the organizers, this half-day workshop will transition from passive listening to active collaboration. Following short paper presentations, the session will utilize an interactive format where participants engage with curated materials highlighting current ambiguities and conflicts to synthesize a consensus-based foundation for a reference document. This resource aims to make implicit methodological choices explicit, thereby improving the transparency, interpretability, and reproducibility of future eye tracking studies

Organizers: SIMON RÖHRL, ROMAN BEDNARIK, ÜRGEN MOTTOK