User device providing electronic publications with dynamic exercises

• US 8,834,166 B1
• Filed: 09/24/2010
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ionkov, George M., Grit, Laura Ellen, Harding, Dennis H., Dykstra, Aaron James, Petts, James C., Minter, Samuel A., Fowler, Lindsey Christina, Xi, Yong
• Primary Examiner(s): Utama, Robert J
• Application Number:
  US12/890,532
• Time in Patent Office: 1,453 Days
• Field of Search: 434/178, 434/179, 434/262, 434/189, 434/184
• US Class Current: 434/178
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 17/00 Teaching reading teaching lip-reading G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers

Abstract

A user device displays portions of an electronic publication for a user to read. The user device tracks the user'"'"'s reading behavior of the portions of the electronic publication. The user device then selects a problem from a group of pre-generated problems for the user based on the user'"'"'s reading behavior and provides the selected problem to the user.

Claims

1. A method, implemented by a user device, comprising:

displaying portions of an electronic publication on the user device;

tracking a user'"'"'s reading behavior of the portions of the electronic publication by the user device;

selecting a problem from a group of pre-generated problems for the user based on the user'"'"'s reading behavior; and

providing the selected problem to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking an amount of time that it takes for the user to generate a solution to the problem;

determining a correctness of the solution; and

suggesting one or more portions of the electronic publication for the user to re-read based on the correctness of the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

reporting the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution to an instructor'"'"'s user device; and

suggesting material for the instructor to review with the user based on at least one of the user'"'"'s reading behavior, the solution, and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

suggesting portions of an additional publication for the user to read based on the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

comparing the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution to a combination of other solutions for the same problem as well as times that it took other users to generate the other solutions; and

determining whether the user is cheating based on the comparison.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising

comparing the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution to a combination of other solutions for the same problem as well as times that it took other users to generate the other solutions;

and

reporting the comparison to the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking the user'"'"'s reading behavior includes the following:

tracking how fast the user reads the portions of the publication; and

determining which portions of the publication the user has finished reading.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the user device includes an optical sensor, the method further comprising:

tracking the user'"'"'s eye movement using the optical sensor while displaying the portions of the publication, wherein tracking the user'"'"'s reading behavior comprises tracking the user'"'"'s eye movement.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the user'"'"'s reading behavior satisfies a reading behavior criterion; and

selecting the problem in response to determining that the user'"'"'s reading behavior satisfies the reading behavior criterion.

10. A system comprising:

an apparatus having a memory to store instructions for a studying module and a processor, connected to the memory, to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the processor to;

display portions of an electronic publication on a display;

track a user'"'"'s reading behavior of the portions of the electronic publication;

select a problem from a group of pre-generated problems for the user based

on the user'"'"'s reading behavior; and

provide the selected problem to the user.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising the instructions to cause the processor to:

track an amount of time that it takes for the user to generate a solution to the problem;

determine a correctness of the solution; and

suggest one or more portions of the electronic publication or an additional electronic publication for the user to read based on the correctness of the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the time that it takes for the user to generate the solution to the problem and the correctness of the solution are included in problem solving behavior of the user, the system further comprising:

an additional apparatus of an instructor to receive the user'"'"'s reading behavior and the user'"'"'s problem solving behavior as well as additional user'"'"'s reading behaviors and additional user'"'"'s problem solving behaviors, and to suggest material for the instructor to review with the user and one or more additional users based on at least one of the user'"'"'s reading behavior, the user'"'"'s problem solving behavior, the additional user'"'"'s read behaviors and the additional user'"'"'s problem solving behaviors.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising the instructions to cause the processor to:

compare the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution to a combination of other solutions for the same problem as well as times that it took other users to generate the other solutions; and

determine whether the user is cheating based on the comparison.

14. The system of claim 11, further comprising the instructions to cause the processor to:

compare the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution to a combination of other solutions for the same problem as well as times that it took other users to generate the other solutions; and

report the comparison to the user.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

an optical sensor to track the user'"'"'s eye movement while the processor displays the portions of the publication, wherein tracking the user'"'"'s reading behavior comprises tracking the user'"'"'s eye movement.

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising the instructions to cause the processor to:

determine whether the user'"'"'s reading behavior satisfies a reading behavior criterion; and

select the problem in response to determining that the user'"'"'s reading behavior satisfies the reading behavior criterion.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein to track the user'"'"'s reading behavior, the processor tracks how fast the user reads the portions of the publication and determines which portions of the publication the user has finished reading.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the apparatus is a portable user device.

19. A computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

determining a user'"'"'s reading behavior for one or more portions of an electronic publication;

selecting a problem from a group of pre-generated problems for the user based on the user'"'"'s reading behavior;

determining the user'"'"'s problem solving behavior for the selected problem; and

suggesting at least one of the one or more portions of the electronic publication for the user to re-read based on at least one of the user'"'"'s reading behavior and the user'"'"'s problem solving behavior.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein determining the user'"'"'s reading behavior comprises:

providing the one or more portions of the electronic publication to the user;

tracking an amount of time that it takes for the user to read each of the one or more portions of the electronic publication; and

determining whether the user read each of the one or more portions of the electronic publication.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein tracking the amount of time that it takes for the user to read the one or more portions of the electronic publication comprises, for each portion:

displaying the portion of the electronic publication until the user issues a change page command;

beginning a timer when the portion of the electronic publication is initially displayed; and

stopping the timer when the user issues the change page command.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, further comprising:

determining whether the user'"'"'s reading behavior satisfies a reading behavior criterion;

determining whether the user'"'"'s problem solving behavior satisfies a problem solving behavior criterion; and

performing an action in response to determining that the user'"'"'s reading behavior satisfies the reading behavior criterion and the user'"'"'s problem solving behavior satisfies a problem solving behavior criterion.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein determining the user'"'"'s problem solving behavior for the selected problem comprises:

tracking an amount of time that it takes for the user to generate a solution to the problem; and

determining a correctness of the solution.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, further comprising:

comparing the solution and the amount of time that it took the user to generate the solution to a combination of other solutions for the same problem as well as times that it took other users to generate the other solutions; and

performing an action in response to an outcome of the comparing, the action including at least one of suggesting additional portions of the electronic publication for the user to read, reporting the outcome of the comparing to the user and determining whether the user cheated based on the outcome.

25. A method comprising:

providing an electronic publication to a user on a user device; and

determining, by a processor of the user device, a rate of consumption of the electronic publication for the user.