Reading ease of text on a device

• US 9,323,723 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2011
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Rounthwaite, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): STORK, KYLE R
• Application Number:
  US13/163,084
• Publication Number:
  US 20120324348A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,775 Days
• Field of Search: 715/234, 715/243, 715/244, 715/254, 715/255, 715/256
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for improving reading ease of text displayed by a device. Reading-related feedback, such as feedback that indicates user reading speed and/or user reading comprehension, can be received for a user of the device. One or more display-related characteristics, such as characteristics that indicate how text is displayed by the device, can be received for the device. Using the reading-related feedback and the one or more display-related characteristics, a reading model can be created that can indicate desired display parameters for displaying the text on the device. The desired display parameters indicated by the reading model may be used to improve reading ease of the text, displayed by the device, for the user.

Claims

1. A method implemented by one or more computing devices, the method comprising:

obtaining reading-related feedback for a particular user, the reading-related feedback indicating reading ease of the particular user of text displayed on a display device;

obtaining one or more text display-related characteristics of the display device;

creating a reading model based at least in part upon the reading-related feedback and the one or more text display-related characteristics;

obtaining reading difficulty information of the text;

using the reading model with the reading difficulty information of the text to identify desired reading characteristics for the particular user for the text; and

automatically adjusting one or more display parameters of the display device based at least in part upon the desired reading characteristics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reading difficulty information of the text comprises vocabulary difficulty or average sentence length.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the desired reading characteristics comprise one or more of:

a brightness level;

a contrast level;

font characteristics;

line spacing; and

word spacing.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the creating the reading model further comprises customizing a general reading model that is built with data from multiple readers and multiple display device types.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the reading model is customized for the particular user based at least upon the reading-related feedback.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the reading model is customized for a particular type of the display device based at least upon the one or more text display-related characteristics of the display device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining the reading-related feedback comprises obtaining one or more of:

a user reading speed; and

a measure of user reading comprehension.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtaining the reading-related feedback comprises obtaining the user reading speed based at least in part upon one or more of the following user interactions:

a page scroll rate;

a switching page view rate;

user reading speed input; and

observation of user eye movement.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtaining the reading-related feedback comprises obtaining the measure of the user reading comprehension based at least in part upon one or more of the following user interactions:

a user look-back rate;

user comprehension input;

observation of user activity; and

observation of user eye movement.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more text display-related characteristics comprise one or more of:

alterable characteristics of the display device;

unalterable characteristics of the display device;

displayed text characteristics; and

current page view characteristics.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining updated reading-related feedback for the particular user and readjusting the one or more display parameters of the display device based at least in part upon the updated reading-related feedback.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more display parameters of the display device are repeatedly readjusted based at least in part upon further updated reading-related feedback until a desired reading ease is obtained.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising updating the reading model based at least in part upon the updated reading-related feedback.

14. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device storing computer readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

receive reading-related feedback for a user, the reading-related feedback indicating a reading speed of the user,

receive content characteristics of text that is to be displayed to the user on a display device,

access a reading model that is based at least in part upon data from multiple readers using multiple display device types,

using the reading model, the reading-related feedback for the user, and the content characteristics of the text, determine desired reading characteristics for the user for the text,

based at least in part upon the desired reading characteristics for the user, customize one or more text display parameters of the display device, and

display the text to the user on the display device according to the customized one or more text display parameters.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the reading-related feedback for the user comprises observed interactions of the user with the display device over time.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to identify different text display parameters for the user for different types of display devices based at least in part upon the desired reading characteristics for the user.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the different text display parameters for the different types of display devices include a font type, a font size, and a font spacing.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to receive environment characteristics of the user and wherein the environment characteristics are used according to the reading model to determine the desired reading characteristics for the user.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the computer readable instructions further cause the processor to update the reading model based at least in part upon updated reading-related feedback for the user.

20. A computing device comprising:

a display device;

a processor; and

a storage device storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

identify reading ease metrics of a user related to text displayed by the display device,

obtain a reading difficulty level of the text related to content features of the text,

input the reading ease metrics of the user and the reading difficulty level of the text to a reading ease model to identify desired text-related display characteristics, and

automatically adjust one or more text display parameters of the display device based at least in part upon the desired text-related display characteristics.