Providing assistance to read electronic books

• US 9,478,143 B1
• Filed: 03/25/2011
• Issued: 10/25/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bowen, James Samuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Yao, Sam
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAGE, EVAN RANDALL
• Application Number:
  US13/072,401
• Time in Patent Office: 2,041 Days
• Field of Search: 434/178, 434/317
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/062 Combinations of audio and printed presentations, e.g. magnetically striped cards, talking books, magnetic tapes with printed texts thereon

Abstract

Architectures and techniques are described to provide assistance to read electronic books. In particular, a computing device may receive input from an individual while the individual is reading an electronic book, such as voice input, gaze tracking input, touch screen input, and so on. Based on the input gathered while the individual reads the electronic book, the computing device may determine a particular portion of the electronic book, such as one or more words of the electronic book, that the individual is reading. The computing device may also utilize the input gathered while the individual reads the electronic book to determine whether the individual needs assistance in reading one or more words of the electronic book, such as assistance in pronouncing the one or more words. The computing device may then provide assistance to the individual to read the one or more words.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

under control of a computing device configured with specific instructions executable by one or more processors of the computing device,

receiving, by a reading input module of the computing device, voice input data from a microphone including words of an electronic book displayed via a display of the computing device, the words being spoken by an individual reading the electronic book;

receiving, by the reading input module of the computing device, eye movement data from a gaze tracking camera;

assigning a first weight to the voice input data and a second weight to the eye movement data;

determining, based at least in part on the first weight and the second weight, that the individual has skipped one or more words while reading the portion of the electronic book; and

causing, by the computing device, visual assistance to be provided to assist the individual in reading the portion of the electronic book, wherein the visual assistance includes changing an appearance of the one or more words skipped by the individual.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a learning type of the individual; and

wherein causing the visual assistance to be provided to assist the individual in reading the portion of the electronic book is based, at least in part, on the learning type of the individual.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining, based at least in part on the voice input data, that the individual pauses while reading a portion of the electronic book, and determining a length of a pause taken by the individual while reading the portion of the electronic book.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the causing of the visual assistance to be provided occurs at least partly in response to the length of the pause reaching a threshold length.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the threshold length of the pause is based, at least in part, on a reading level of one or more words of the portion of the electronic book.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the causing of the visual assistance to be provided is based, at least in part, on reading ability of the individual.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the individual is viewing the portion of the electronic book based, at least in part, on touch screen data indicating selection of a word of the portion of the electronic book.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting respective voice data, respective gaze tracking data, or both, while the individual reads each of a plurality of electronic books; and

determining metrics associated with the individual reading the plurality of electronic books based, at least in part, on the respective voice data, the respective gaze tracking data, or both.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the metrics include reading speed, reading ability of the individual, reading level of words read by the individual, a number of words read, a number of new words read, or combinations thereof.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising providing incentives to the individual to improve the metrics.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising generating a user interface including graphs, charts, other graphics, or combinations thereof, indicating the metrics.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

turning a page of the electronic book in response to determining that the individual has read at least one last word of the page of the electronic book.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the individual has read the portion of the electronic book; and

based at least in part on the determining, causing the visual assistance to be removed by returning the appearance of the one or more words to a prior appearance used to present the one or more words before the visual assistance changed the appearance of the one or more words.

13. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a camera;

a display; and

memory accessible by the processor, the memory storing one or more modules executable by the processor to;

detect, using the camera, that there are multiple individuals viewing the display of the computing device;

determine which individual, of the multiple individuals, is reading the electronic book based, at least in part, on lip movement, eye movement, head movement, or a combination thereof, that is captured by the camera;

determine a portion of content being viewed by the individual reading the electronic book;

receive input data indicating words read by the individual reading the electronic book;

alter an appearance of at least one word of the words read by the individual reading the electronic book;

perform a comparison of the words read by the individual reading the electronic book with words of the portion of the content being viewed by the individual reading the electronic book;

determine, based at least in part on the comparison, that the individual reading the electronic book skipped one or more words of the portion of the content being viewed by the individual reading the electronic book; and

provide assistance to read the one or more words skipped by the individual reading the electronic book.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the portion of the content that is being viewed by the individual reading the electronic book is a particular portion of an electronic book, and wherein the memory further includes at least one module executable by the processor to provide portions of the electronic book via a display device.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the processor to provide assistance to read the portions of the electronic book by highlighting a word of the electronic book.

16. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the processor to provide assistance to read the portions of the electronic book by displaying phonemes of a word of the electronic book.

17. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the processor to provide assistance to read the portions of the electronic book by dimming or brightening pictures proximate to a word included in the portions of the electronic book.

18. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the processor to:

determine that the individual reading the electronic book is viewing a first portion of the electronic book that includes a picture, and

provide additional assistance to read a word of a second portion of the electronic book by moving the word from the second portion of the electronic book to the first portion of the electronic book.

19. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the processor to determine at least one next word of the electronic book to be read by the individual reading the electronic book and to alter an appearance of the at least one next word.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein altering the appearance of the at least one next word includes changing a color, font, or style of the at least one next word, highlighting the at least one next word, increasing a size of the at least one next word, or combinations thereof.

21. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the processor to provide assistance to read the portions of the electronic book by changing an appearance of one or more pictures of the electronic book that correspond to at least one word read by the individual reading the electronic book.

22. The computing device of claim 13, wherein providing the assistance to read the one or more words skipped by the individual reading the electronic book includes altering an appearance of the one or more words.

23. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the one or more modules are further executable by the processor to:

provide additional assistance to read portions of the content at least partly in response to determining that the individual reading the electronic book has made a specified number of unsuccessful attempts to pronounce a word.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed, instruct a processor to perform operations comprising:

determining that each of a plurality of individuals is viewing an electronic book based, at least in part, on audio data captured by a microphone, visual data captured by a gaze tracking camera, or both that corresponds to the plurality of individuals;

identifying, based, at least in part, on lip movement, eye movement, head movement, or a combination thereof, that is captured by the gaze tracking camera, an individual of the plurality of individuals that is reading a portion of the electronic book being viewed by the individual;

identifying, based at least in part on output of a gaze tracking camera, the portion of the electronic book that the individual is viewing;

determining, based at least in part on output of the gaze tracking camera, that the individual pauses reading for a period of time while viewing the portion of the electronic book; and

providing assistance to pronounce one or more words of the portion of the electronic book.

25. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise determining facial characteristics of each of the plurality of individuals, and the individual reading the portion of the electronic book is identified based, at least in part, on the facial characteristics of the plurality of individuals.

26. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 25, wherein the facial characteristics include distance between eyes, length of face, width of face, other facial dimensions, or combinations thereof.

27. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise determining a direction of a voice reading words of the portion of the electronic book, and wherein the individual reading the portion of the electronic book is identified based, at least in part, on the direction of the voice.

28. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 24, wherein the individual reading the portion of the electronic book is identified based, at least in part, on characteristics of voices of the plurality of individuals, the characteristics of the voices of the plurality of individuals including tone, pitch, volume, or combinations thereof.

29. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 24, wherein the operations further comprise determining an identity of each of the plurality of individuals via facial recognition techniques, and wherein the individual reading the portion of the electronic book is identified based, at least in part, on the identity of each of the plurality of individuals.

30. The non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 24, wherein the individual reading the portion of the electronic book is identified based, at least in part, on lip movements, eye movements, head movements, or combinations thereof, by one or more of the plurality of individuals.