arXiv subjects

Enkelejda Kasneci

Publications and source records attributed to Enkelejda Kasneci.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Motion-Based Tokenization for Cross-Dataset Egocentric Gaze Modeling

Gaze is increasingly used as an input signal for vision and multimodal models, yet no consensus exists on how to represent it across datasets. Raw traces preserve detail but are noisy and device-dependent, while coarse event labels are easy to model but can discard local motion structure. We formulate event-aligned, fixed-horizon angular displacement as an interpretable, event-conditioned motion vocabulary and compare it with event-only, spatial, absolute-angle, learned vector-quantized, and continuous representations. To assess transfer alongside target predictability and token collapse, our evaluation combines next-token prediction with target-domain regret, low-order target references, paired bootstrap, order sensitivity, motif overlap, and frozen structural probes. In an event-aligned headset benchmark, angular-motion tokens have lower target-domain regret than frozen-codebook VQ tokens in one transfer direction, while the reverse direction is inconclusive. The probes reveal complementary representation properties, and event-only tokens show that low perplexity can retain little motion information. On a third egocentric dataset, a matched comparison of I-VT, native, and frame-span interfaces shows that event construction materially changes transfer: native events have the lowest regret into EGTEA, while frame-span events have zero motif overlap and fail severely as a source. Motion-based tokenization therefore provides a compact representation for event-aligned egocentric gaze streams, while the evaluation identifies how target predictability and event construction shape cross-dataset conclusions.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

The safety failures we are not instrumenting: a perspective on hidden safety-critical challenges in modern AI systems

Current AI safety discourse still focuses disproportionately on visible failures, including obvious harms, dramatic misuse, and hypothetical catastrophic scenarios. That focus is incomplete. In deployed systems, many of the most consequential failures are quieter: plausible rather than spectacular, distributed across components rather than localized in a single output, and normalized by workflows before they are recognized as hazards. We argue that a central safety challenge in modern AI systems is increasingly not only whether a model emits a harmful response, but whether the broader socio-technical system preserves the conditions under which errors remain visible, contestable, containable, and recoverable. We propose a five-layer framework for diagnosing these hidden risks: (1) epistemic integrity, concerning whether evidence and uncertainty are represented honestly enough to support calibrated reliance; (2) control integrity, concerning whether authority, permissions, and action boundaries remain robust under attack and optimization; (3) temporal integrity, concerning whether safety holds across sessions, memory updates, and deployment drift; (4) organizational integrity, concerning whether institutions retain the capacity to audit, assign responsibility, and intervene effectively; and (5) ecosystem integrity, concerning whether AI systems preserve rather than erode the information environment on which future oversight depends. Across these layers, we identify under-recognized risk patterns, including overreliance, uncertainty and legitimacy laundering in retrieval, prompt injection, reward hacking, memory poisoning, evaluation deception, fictional human oversight, synthetic evidence pollution, and model collapse. We conclude with design and governance recommendations and a research agenda for shifting AI safety from model-centric evaluation toward socio-technical reliability.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2026

Exploring Context-aware and LLM-driven Locomotion for Immersive Virtual Reality

Locomotion plays a crucial role in shaping the user experience within virtual reality environments. In particular, hands-free locomotion offers a valuable alternative by supporting accessibility and freeing users from reliance on handheld controllers. To this end, traditional speech-based methods often depend on rigid command sets, limiting the naturalness and flexibility of interaction. In this study, we propose a novel locomotion technique powered by large language models (LLMs), which allows users to navigate virtual environments using natural language with contextual awareness. We evaluate three locomotion methods: controller-based teleportation, voice-based steering, and our language model-driven approach. Our evaluation combines eye-tracking data analysis, including exploratory explainable machine learning analysis with SHAP, and standardized questionnaires (SUS, IPQ, CSQ-VR, NASA-TLX) to examine user experience through both objective gaze-based measures and subjective self-reports of usability, presence, cybersickness, and cognitive load. Our findings show no statistically significant differences in usability, presence, or cybersickness between LLM-driven locomotion and established methods such as teleportation, suggesting its potential as a viable, natural language-based, hands-free alternative. In addition, eye-tracking analysis revealed patterns suggesting tendency toward increased user attention and engagement in the LLM-driven condition. Complementary to these findings, exploratory SHAP analysis revealed that fixation, saccade, and pupil-related features vary across techniques, indicating distinct patterns of visual attention and cognitive processing. Overall, we state that our method can facilitate hands-free locomotion in virtual spaces, especially in supporting accessibility.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

AI Coding Agents in Social Science: Methodologically Diverse, Empirically Consistent, Interpretively Vulnerable

The deployment of LLM-based agents in scientific analysis raises opposing concerns: that agents may reduce methodological diversity, or that they may amplify the analytic flexibility through which researchers reach motivated conclusions. We argue these worries target two empirically separable layers: a design layer of methodological choices, and a verdict layer in which a decision rule maps estimates to a substantive claim. We test both by running 20 independent executions of Claude Code and Codex on a prominent immigration and social-policy against a many-analysts human baseline. At the design layer, Codex matches human methodological diversity and Claude Code produces nearly three times as many specifications; both agents' effect estimates remain broadly aligned with the human consensus, and no agent model exactly matches any human model. A prompt-induced anti-immigration researcher prior reorganizes each agent's methodological decisions but, unlike for biased human analysts in the same data, does not shift aggregate estimates or final verdicts; nor do agents reroute along the methodological axes humans use to bias their estimates. At the verdict layer, an explicit confirmatory prompt flips Claude Code's verdicts from 10% to 90% support while leaving its coefficient distribution essentially unchanged, operating through rule omission rather than rule softening. AI agents can rival or exceed human methodological diversity at the design layer while remaining vulnerable at the verdict layer. In our setting, the locus of AI bias is not estimation but interpretation.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

Sycophancy is an Educational Safety Risk: Why LLM Tutors Need Sycophancy Benchmarks

This position paper argues that effective tutoring requires corrective friction: surfacing misconceptions and challenging them supportively to drive conceptual change. Yet preference-aligned LLMs can trade epistemic rigor for agreeableness. We identify a Reasoning-Sycophancy Paradox: models that resist context-switch frame attacks can still capitulate under social-epistemic pressure, especially authority ("my notes say I'm right") and social-affective face-saving ("please don't tell me I'm wrong"). We introduce EduFrameTrap, a tutoring benchmark across math, physics, economics, chemistry, biology, and computer science that varies student confidence and pressure (context-switch, authority, social-affective). Across two frontier LLMs, context-switch failures are comparatively lower for GPT-5.2, while authority and social pressure more often trigger epistemic retreat. In contrast, Claude shows substantial context-switch fragility in this run. Because these failures are hard to judge automatically, we report two-judge disagreement as a reliability signal. We argue benchmarks should measure social-epistemic courage, i.e., supportive but corrective tutoring, and treat kind-but-correct behavior as a safety requirement.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2026

Exploring Organizational Readiness and Ecosystem Coordination for Industrial XR

Extended Reality (XR) offers transformative potential for industrial support, training, and maintenance; yet, widespread adoption lags despite demonstrated occupational value and hardware maturity. Organizations successfully implement XR in isolated pilots, yet struggle to scale these into sustained operational deployment, a phenomenon we characterize as the ``Pilot Trap.'' This study examines this phenomenon through a qualitative ecosystem analysis of 17 expert interviews across technology providers, solution integrators, and industrial adopters. We identify a ``Great Inversion'' in adoption barriers: critical constraints have shifted from technological maturity to organizational readiness (e.g., change management, key performance indicator alignment, and political resistance). While hardware ergonomics and usability remain relevant, our findings indicate that systemic misalignments between stakeholder incentives are the primary cause of friction preventing enterprise integration. We conclude that successful industrial XR adoption requires a shift from technology-centric piloting to a problem-first, organizational transformation approach, necessitating explicit ecosystem-level coordination.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

An Affordable, Wearable Stereo-Eye-Tracking Platform

Research on video-based eye-tracking has long explored stereo and glint-based methods, yet existing wearable eye trackers - both commercial and open-source - offer limited flexibility for algorithm development and comparative evaluation. We present an affordable, wearable stereo eye-tracking platform built from off-the-shelf and 3D-printable components that explicitly targets this gap. The system combines four infrared eye cameras, infrared illumination, an optional scene camera, and software support for calibration and synchronized data acquisition. By design, the platform supports multiple eye-tracking paradigms, including stereo, glint-based, and binocular approaches, within a single hardware configuration. Rather than optimizing for end-user robustness, the platform prioritizes modularity and extensibility for research use. This paper focuses on the hardware architecture and calibration pipeline and demonstrates the feasibility of the approach using a prototype implementation. All hardware designs and documentation are made openly available.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

MemeScouts@LT-EDI 2026: Asking the Right Questions -- Prompted Weak Supervision for Meme Hate Speech Detection

Detecting hate speech in memes is challenging due to their multimodal nature and subtle, culturally grounded cues such as sarcasm and context. While recent vision-language models (VLMs) enable joint reasoning over text and images, end-to-end prompting can be brittle, as a single prediction must resolve target, stance, implicitness, and irony. These challenges are amplified in multilingual settings. We propose a prompted weak supervision (PWS) approach that decomposes meme understanding into targeted, question-based labeling functions with constrained answer options for homophobia and transphobia detection in the LT-EDI 2026 shared task. Using a quantized Qwen3-VLM to extract features by answering targeted questions, our method outperforms direct VLM classification, with substantial gains for Chinese and Hindi, ranking 1st in English, 2nd in Chinese, and 3rd in Hindi. Iterative refinement via error-driven LF expansion and feature pruning reduces redundancy and improves generalization. Our results highlight the effectiveness of prompted weak supervision for multilingual multimodal hate speech detection.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

VIVA Stimuli: A Web-Based Platform for Eye Tracking Stimuli

Reproducibility in eye-tracking research is increasingly important as researchers conduct diverse experiments and seek to validate or replicate findings. However, exact replication remains challenging due to differences in laboratory practices and experimental setups. Inconsistent stimulus presentation can yield divergent metrics from identical oculomotor behavior, yet the stimulus layer remains largely unstandardized. Existing tools often require programming expertise or depend on specific hardware vendors. We introduce VIVA Stimuli, a web-based platform for standardized eye-tracking stimulus presentation. It provides configurable task types, including fixation, smooth pursuit, cognitive load, blink, slippage, content display, and questionnaires within a unified environment. The platform supports any eye-tracking technology, including wearable and screen-based VOG trackers, LFI sensors, and EOG devices. ArUco markers enable synchronization for trackers with scene cameras, while a WebSocket architecture ensures temporal synchronization for those without. A visual experiment flow editor allows protocols to be exported and shared, enabling identical stimulus replication across laboratories.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Sure About That Line? Approaching Confidence-Based, Real-Time Line Assignment in Reading Gaze Data

Remote and webcam-based eye tracking in multi-line reading suffers from various noise factors and layout ambiguity, precisely where real-time reading support needs reliable, per-fixation line assignment. Prior work largely addresses this challenge post hoc or by restricting behavior (e.g., disallowing re-reading), undermining interactive use. We propose CONF-LA (Confidence-score-based Online Fixation-to-Line Assignment), a principled, low-latency approach that integrates knowledge about reading behavior and Gaussian line likelihoods over fixations to compute a posterior-line-score and defers assignments when uncertainty is high. Evaluated on existing open-source data, CONF-LA demonstrates stable performance in post hoc analysis and closes the online-offline gap (1-2 %) with a mean per-fixation latency of 0.348 ms. Our approach exhibits particular invariance toward regressions, yielding significant improvement in ad hoc median accuracies on children data (approx. 95 %) over all tested algorithms. We encourage further research in this direction and discuss possibilities for future development.

q-bio.NC↗

arXiv2026

Understanding Password Preferences, Memorability, and Security through a Human-Centered Lens

Passwords remain the primary authentication method, yet user-created passwords are often the weakest due to the security-usability trade-off. Although AI-based password generators are emerging, little is known about their effectiveness and user perceptions. This eye-tracking study examined how behavior during password creation, selection, and memorization relates to objective and subjective password quality. Four password models, three AI-based (DeepSeek-API, ChatGPT-API, PassGPT) and one rule-based random generator, generated suggestions from participants' self-generated passwords across four website contexts. Eye movements were recorded throughout the experiment. Results confirm the expected trade-off between AI-generated password strength and human memorability but also reveal a novel behavioral link. Despite stronger AI-generated passwords, participants favored self-generated ones. Notably, visual attention to contextual cues was significantly correlated with higher password entropy. This suggests that security is shaped not only by the generation tool but also by users' visual engagement with contextual cues, highlighting the potential of attention-driven security design.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Secure Storage and Privacy-Preserving Scanpath Comparison via Garbled Circuits in Eye Tracking

With the growing use of eye tracking on VR and mobile platforms, gaze data is increasing. While scanpath comparison is important to gaze behavior analysis, existing methods lack privacy-preserving capabilities for real-world use. We present a garbled-circuit (GC)-based approach enabling secure storage and privacy-preserving scanpath comparison under the semi-honest model. It supports two configurations: (1) a two-party setting where the data owner and processor jointly compute similarity scores without revealing their inputs, and (2) a server-assisted setting where encrypted scanpaths are stored and processed while the data owner remains offline. All decryption and comparison operations are executed inside the GC. Experiments on three eye-tracking datasets evaluate fidelity, runtime, and communication, and show secure results for MultiMatch, ScanMatch, and SubsMatch closely match plaintext outcomes, with manageable runtime and communication overhead. Tests under various network conditions indicate that the design remains feasible for real-world privacy-preserving scanpath analysis and can be extended to other GC-based behavioral algorithms.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2026

From Scoring to Explanations: Evaluating SHAP and LLM Rationales for Rubric-based Teaching Quality Assessment

Automated scoring models are increasingly used to assign rubric-based quality ratings to complex language performances, including classroom transcripts, yet they typically provide little insight into why a particular score is produced. We propose a general framework for sentence-level interpretability of rubric-based scoring that combines model-agnostic Shapley-value attributions with rationales generated by large language models (LLMs). Instantiated on the Quality of Feedback dimension of the CLASS framework using the NCTE corpus, the framework enables systematic comparison of fine-tuned pretrained language models (PLMs) and prompted LLMs on both scoring performance and explanation faithfulness. Across 6k annotated transcript segments, fine-tuned PLMs outperform LLMs in prediction accuracy but exhibit label compression toward mid-scale scores. Deletion-based tests show that SHAP identifies sentences that reliably drive model predictions, producing typically larger and more coherent prediction shifts than LLM-generated rationales. Cross-model analyses further reveal that SHAP attributions transfer robustly across architectures, whereas LLM rationales exert limited and inconsistent influence. Overall, the findings demonstrate that SHAP provides more faithful and transferable explanations for rubric-based scoring, and that the proposed framework offers a principled basis for evaluating both scoring models and their explanations in high-stakes educational settings and other rubric-based language assessment tasks.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2026

Lazy or Efficient? Towards Accessible Eye-Tracking Event Detection Using LLMs

Gaze event detection is fundamental to vision science, human-computer interaction, and applied analytics. However, current workflows often require specialized programming knowledge and careful handling of heterogeneous raw data formats. Classical detectors such as I-VT and I-DT are effective but highly sensitive to preprocessing and parameterization, limiting their usability outside specialized laboratories. This work introduces a code-free, large language model (LLM)-driven pipeline that converts natural language instructions into an end-to-end analysis. The system (1) inspects raw eye-tracking files to infer structure and metadata, (2) generates executable routines for data cleaning and detector implementation from concise user prompts, (3) applies the generated detector to label fixations and saccades, and (4) returns results and explanatory reports, and allows users to iteratively optimize their code by editing the prompt. Evaluated on public benchmarks, the approach achieves accuracy comparable to traditional methods while substantially reducing technical overhead. The framework lowers barriers to entry for eye-tracking research, providing a flexible and accessible alternative to code-intensive workflows.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

As Far as Eye See: Vergence-Pupil Coupling in Near-Far Depth Switching

Vergence is widely used as a proxy for depth perception and spatial attention in immersive and real-world eye-tracking studies. In this paper, we investigate how pupil size artefacts affect vergence estimates during real physical depth viewing with a head-mounted eye tracker. Using a beamsplitter setup with physically near and far targets, we elicited controlled convergent and divergent eye movements under static, luminance-modulated, and blockwise fixation conditions. Near and far targets were reliably separable in vergence angle across participants. However, pupil-vergence coupling varied substantially across individuals and conditions. Static illumination produced large inter-participant variability, while luminance modulation reduced this spread, yielding more clustered estimates. Blockwise and audio-cued recordings further showed that pupil-vergence coupling persists even without visual depth onsets. These results suggest that pupil size fluctuations can systematically influence vergence estimates, and that controlled viewing conditions can reduce--but not eliminate--this effect.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Night Eyes: A Reproducible Framework for Constellation-Based Corneal Reflection Matching

Corneal reflection (glint) detection plays an important role in pupil-corneal reflection (P-CR) eye tracking, but in practice it is often handled as heuristics embedded within larger systems, making reproducibility difficult across hardware setups. We introduce a 2D geometry-driven, constellation-based pipeline for mulit-glint detection and matching, focusing on reproducibility and clear evaluation. Inspired by lost-in-space star identification, we treat glints as structured constellations rather than independent blobs. We propose a Similarity-Layout Alignment (SLA) procedure which adapts constellation matching to the specific constraints of multi-LED eye tracking. The framework brings together controlled over-detection, adaptive candidate fallback, appearance-aware scoring, and optional semantic layout priors while keeping detection and correspondence explicitly separated. Evaluated on a public multi-LED dataset, the system provides stable identity-preserving correspondence under noisy conditions. We release code, presets, and evaluation scripts to enable transparent replication, comparison, and dataset annotation.

cs.CV↗

arXiv2026

What Shapes Participant Data Quality? A Scoping Review and Case Study of Crowdsourced Webcam Eye Tracking in AI Interviews

Webcam-based eye tracking is a cost-effective, scalable method for remote research that effectively reaches broader populations. However, uncontrolled environments and hardware diversity lead to inconsistent data quality in crowdsourcing. To assess current practices, we conducted a scoping review of crowdsourced eye-tracking from 2011-2025. The review confirms fragmented reporting and a lack of established quality benchmarks. To address this lack of predictive insight, we conducted a case study on AI fairness interviews (N=205) using the RealEye platform. Applying Ordered Logistic Regression (OLR) to the platform quality metric, we found that behavioral and technical factors significantly predict data quality. Specifically, within the RealEye platform, higher fixation counts, shorter sessions, and operating system choice yield significantly higher quality grades. Based on this review and platform-specific predictive insights, we provide actionable recommendations to enhance the reliability, transparency, and replicability of future crowdsourced webcam eye tracking in HCI and behavioral science.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2026

Automatic Mind Wandering Detection in Educational Settings: A Systematic Review and Multimodal Benchmarking

Detecting mind wandering is crucial in online education, and it occurs 30% of the time, as it directly impacts learners' retention, comprehension, and overall success in self-directed learning environments. Integrating automated detection algorithms enables the deployment of targeted interventions within adaptive learning environments, paving the way for more responsive and personalized educational systems. However, progress is hampered by a lack of coherent frameworks for identifying mind wandering in online environments. This work presents a comprehensive systematic review and benchmark of mind wandering detection across 14 datasets covering EEG, facial video, eye tracking, and physiological signals in educational settings, motivated by the challenges in achieving reliable detection and the inconsistency of results across studies caused by variations in models, preprocessing approaches, and evaluation metrics. We implemented a generalizable preprocessing and feature extraction pipeline tailored to each modality, ensuring fair comparison across diverse experimental paradigms. 13 traditional machine learning and neural network models, including federated learning approaches, were evaluated on each dataset. In a novel ablation study, we explored mind wandering detection from post-probe data, motivated by findings that learners often re-engage with material after mind wandering episodes through re-reading or re-watching. Results highlight the potential and limitations of different modalities and classifiers for mind wandering detection, and point to new opportunities for supporting online learning. All code and preprocessing scripts are made openly available to support reproducibility and future research.

cs.HC↗