READING MATERIAL SUGGESTIONS BASED ON READING BEHAVIOR

• US 20140324832A1
• Filed: 07/03/2014
• Published: 10/30/2014
• 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., Harding, Dennis H., Dykstra, Aaron James, Grit, Laura Ellen, Petts, James C., Minter, Samuel A., Fowler, Lindsey Christina, Xi, Yong
• Granted Patent: US 10,216,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• 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 suggests additional reading material for the user based on the user'"'"'s reading behavior.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. A method comprising:

displaying a first portion of an electronic publication on a user device;

determining a first amount of time that the first portion of the electronic publication is displayed on the user device;

determining one or more passage of text included in the first portion of the electronic publication;

determining a second amount of time that the one or more passages are displayed by the user device based on the first amount of time that the first portion of the electronic publication is displayed;

determining content included in the one or more passages;

determining, by the user device, additional reading material based on the second amount of time and the content included in the one or more passages; and

providing, by the user device, a suggestion of the additional reading material.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a difficulty of a particular passage; and

predicting a reading speed of the particular passage for the user based on the difficulty and an average reading speed of the user.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

setting an upper reading speed threshold and a lower reading speed threshold for a particular passage based on a difficulty of the particular passage and an average reading speed of the user;

determining a user reading speed for the particular passage based on an amount of time that the particular passage was displayed;

determining whether the user reading speed for the particular passage is above the upper reading speed threshold or below the lower reading speed threshold; and

responsive to determining that the user reading speed for the particular passage is above the upper reading speed threshold or below the lower reading speed threshold, determining that the user has a decreased probability of understanding the material covered by the particular passage.

5. A computer readable storage medium having instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

determining a duration of time that a portion of an electronic publication was displayed;

determining a user behavior based at least in part on the duration of time and the portion of the electronic publication relative to other portions of the electronic publication;

determining, by the processor, additional reading material based on the user'"'"'s reading behavior and content included in the portion of the electronic publication; and

providing a suggestion of the additional reading material.

6. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the portion of the electronic publication comprises one or more passages of text, the method further comprising:

determining the one or more passages of text included in the portion of the electronic publication; and

determining an additional duration of time that the one or more passages of text are displayed based on the duration of time that the portion of the electronic publication is displayed, wherein the user behavior is determined based at least in part on the additional duration of time.

7. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

receiving an indication of a difficulty of the portion of the electronic publication; and

determining a predicted reading speed of the portion for a user based on the difficulty and an average reading speed of the user.

8. The computer readable storage medium of claim 7, the operations further comprising:

determining a user understanding of the portion based on a difference between the predicted reading speed and a measured reading speed of the portion by the user.

9. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein determining the material covered in the portion of the electronic publication comprises:

performing a lookup in a data structure, wherein the data structure associates the portion of the electronic publication with a particular subject matter.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein suggesting the additional reading material comprises:

determining that a user had difficulty understanding the content included in the portion of the electronic publication; and

identifying the additional reading material that relates to the content included in the portion of the electronic publication.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

determining whether the user behavior satisfies a reading behavior criterion; and

determining the additional reading material in response to determining that the user behavior satisfies the reading behavior criterion.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

determining reading speeds of the portion of the electronic publication by a plurality of users;

determining an average reading speed for the portion of the electronic publication based on averaging the determined reading speeds; and

determining a difficulty of the portion of the electronic publication based on a difference between the average reading speed of the portion of the electronic publication and average readings speeds of a plurality of additional portions of one or more other electronic publications.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 5, the operations further comprising:

setting at least one of an upper reading speed threshold or a lower reading speed threshold for the portion of the electronic publication based on a difficulty of the portion and an average reading speed of the user;

determining a user reading speed for the portion of the electronic publication based on the duration of time that the portion of the electronic publication was displayed;

determining whether the user reading speed for the portion of the electronic publication is above the upper reading speed threshold or below the lower reading speed threshold; and

responsive to determining that the user reading speed for the portion of the electronic publication is above the upper reading speed threshold or below the lower reading speed threshold, determining that the user has a decreased probability of understanding the content included in the portion of the electronic publication.

14. A user device comprising:

a display;

a data store to store an electronic publication; and

a processor, connected to the display and the data store, the processor to;

display passages of the electronic publication on the display;

determine a duration of time that that the passages of the electronic publication were displayed;

determine a user behavior based at least in part on the duration of time that the passages of the electronic publication were displayed;

determine additional reading material based on the user behavior and content included in one or more of the displayed passages; and

provide a suggestion of the additional reading material.

15. The user device of claim 14, further comprising:

an optical sensor, wherein the processor is to track eye movement of a user using the optical sensor while displaying the passages on the display, wherein tracking the user behavior comprises tracking the user'"'"'s eye movement.

16. The user device of claim 14, further comprising:

at least one of a touch sensor, a proximity sensor or a motion sensor;

wherein the processor is further to;

determine that no page turn command has been received within a time period;

make a determination that the user device is not held by a user based on data from at least one of the touch sensor, the proximity sensor or the motion sensor; and

responsive to the determination, determine a particular passage that is displayed and subtract a value from a duration of time that the particular passage has been displayed.

17. A computer readable storage medium having instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

providing, by the processor, a passage of an electronic publication to a user of a user device;

providing a new passage of the electronic publication to the user of the user device responsive to receiving a change page command; and

determining, by the processor, a rate of consumption of the electronic publication for the user based at least in part on the passage and a timing of the change page command.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein determining the rate of consumption of the electronic publication comprises determining an average reading speed of the user.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

determining a reading speed for the passage of the electronic publication; and

determining a difficulty of the passage based on a comparison of the reading speed for the passage to an average reading speed of the user.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the reading speed for the passage is determined based on tracking an amount of time that the passage is displayed by the user device.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, the operations further comprising:

making a determination as to whether the user device is being held by the user based on sensor data from at least one of a touch sensor, a motion sensor or a proximity sensor; and

adjusting the determined rate of consumption based on the determination as to whether the user device is being held.