The first in person meeting of ‘WG4 – NLP Applications leveraging Eye-tracking Data’ was held at the School of Computer Science, University of Galway, Ireland on May 30-31. The primary aim of this meeting was to discuss the progress of the review paper summarizing the applications of eye-tracking data in NLP. Additionally, participants explored future NLP applications that could utilize the multilingual eye-tracking corpus.
On the first day, attendees had the opportunity to discuss with experts and industry speakers about relevant approaches in eye-tracking research. In the afternoon, the main sessions for the review paper were discussed. With most papers for the review already collected and annotated, the primary focus was on planning the next steps. The group decided to begin writing the paper, assigning different sections to various leaders, so that the work could be better organized.
The second day featured discussion on ongoing projects by WG members, related to the usage of eye-tracking data in various domains. A hands-on tutorial on fake news detection using eye-tracking data sparked extensive discussions. Participants addressed the main challenges associated with using eye-tracking data, conducting experiments and exploring funding opportunities for eye-tracking devices.
Overall, the meeting was inspiring, particularly being held on the beautiful campus of the University of Galway. It was a pleasure to meet in person in-person and further extend our collaboration in WG4. The working group plans to organize a training school in the coming years and further explore how to leverage the MultiplEYE corpora in various NLP projects. We are deeply grateful for the hospitality we received during our visit in Ireland.
