System and method for customizing reading materials based on reading ability

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9536438-B2
Application number	US-201213475220-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 18, 2012
Priority date	May 18, 2012
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A reading device, such as a mobile tablet, may download an electronic reading material, such as a textbook, to local memory. The reading device may store a reader profile representing one or more aspects of a user's reading ability. The reading device may convert the downloaded reading material using the reader profile to better conform to the user's reading ability. As the user reads reading materials using the reading device, the user may provide feedback as to portions of text in the reading materials, including whether a word is not recognized, whether a grammatical construction is confusing, etc. Using the received feedback, the reading device may modify the reading profile to further improve the degree to which it represents the user's reading ability. Once modified, the reader profile may be used to re-convert already downloaded reading materials or to convert subsequently downloaded reading materials.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic reading system, comprising:
a display screen;
a processing system comprising one or more processors; and
a memory system comprising one or more computer-readable media, wherein the computer-readable media contain instructions stored therein that, if executed by the processing system, cause the electronic reading system to perform operations to:
store in the memory system a reader profile, the reader profile including a plurality of aspects of a user's reading ability, wherein the aspects of the user's reading ability comprise: a maximum word length, a, a set of grammatical structures, a set of phrasing structures, a set of figures of speech, and a set of foreign language terms;
download electronic data representing an original reading material;
convert the original reading material to a first reading material based on the reader profile;
display, using the display screen, a portion of the first reading material comprising a first text;
receive an indication identifying a portion of the first text via a graphical user interface;
display a plurality of options in response to the received indication, wherein the plurality of options relates to a reason for the identification of the portion first text, wherein the plurality of options comprise: a word is unrecognizable to the user, a word is unpronounceable by the user, and the user is confused by the grammatical or stylistic construction, and wherein the plurality of options is displayed, on the display screen, together with the first text;
receive a selection of one of the plurality of options;
update the reader profile, wherein the update modifies at least one of the plurality of aspects of a user's reading ability within the reader profile, wherein the update that corresponding to the received selection representing the reason for identifying the portion of the first text;
identify portions of the first text that require modification to conform to the aspects of the user's reading ability in updated reader profile;
convert the identified portions of the first text to a second text based on the updated reader profile, wherein the second text is a modification of the identified portions of the first text based on the selected reason for identifying the portion of the first reading material, the modification of the first text includes at least one of replacing or altering vocabulary, grammatical structures, phrasing structure, punctuation, idioms, expressions, figures of speech, concepts, and sentences to conform to required aspects of the user's reading ability in updated reader profile; and
replace the identified portions of first text displayed on the display screen with the corresponding second text.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the reader profile indicates a reading grade level of the user.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
presenting a user interface using the display screen, wherein the user interface provides functionality for enabling the user to modify values for the one or more aspects.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory system stores a plurality of different reader profiles.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reader profile contains different values for one or more aspects of the user's reading ability for different academic subjects.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
further modifying the reader profile based on a second indication identifying a portion of the first reading material or the selected one of the plurality of options.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the instructions further comprise:
converting the second text to third text using the further modified reader profile, wherein the third text better conforms to the user's reading ability than the second text; and replace the second text displayed on the display screen with the corresponding third text.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the instructions further comprise:
downloading data representing a second reading material, wherein the second reading material comprises a third text;
converting the third text to fourth text using the modified reader profile, wherein the fourth text better conforms to the user's reading ability than the third text; and
displaying all or part of the fourth text using the display screen.

9. A computer-implemented method of converting electronic reading materials based on user reading ability, the method comprising:
storing in a memory system a reader profile, a reader profile including a plurality of aspects of a user's reading ability, wherein the aspects of the user's reading ability comprise: a maximum word length, a, a set of grammatical structures, a set of phrasing structures, a set of figures of speech, and a set of foreign language terms;
downloading data representing an original reading material;
converting the original reading material to a first reading material based on the reader profile;
display, using the display screen, a portion of the first reading material comprising a first text;
receiving an indication identifying a portion of the first text via a graphical user interface;
displaying, a plurality of options in response to the received indication, wherein the plurality of options relates to a reason for the identification of the portion of the first text, wherein the plurality of options comprise: a word is unrecognizable to the user, a word is unpronounceable by the user, and the user is confused by the grammatical or stylistic construction, and
wherein the plurality of options is displayed, on the display screen, together with the first text;
receiving a selection of one of the plurality of options;
updating the reader profile, wherein the update modifies at least one of the plurality of aspects of a user's reading ability within the reader profile, wherein the update that corresponding to the received selection representing the reason for identifying the portion of the first text;
identifying portions of the first text that require modification to conform to the aspects of the user's reading ability in updated reader profile
converting, using one or more processors, the identified portions of the first text to a second text based on the updated reader profile, wherein the second text is a modification of the identified portions of the first text based on the selected reason for identifying the portion of the first reading material, the modification of the first text include at least one of replacing or altering vocabulary, grammatical structures, phrasing structure, punctuation, idioms, expressions, figures of speech, concepts, and sentences to conform to required aspects of the user's reading ability in updated reader profile; and
replacing the identified portions of first text displayed on the display screen with the corresponding second text.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the reader profile indicates a reading grade level of the user.

11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
presenting a user interface using the display screen, wherein the user interface provides functionality for enabling the user to modify values for the one or more aspects.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
storing a plurality of different reader profiles in the memory system.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the reader profile contains different values for one or more aspects of the user's reading ability for different academic subjects.

14. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
further modifying the reader profile based on a second indication identifying a portion of the fir

Assignees

• Sanders Aaron Dale
• Sanders Erika Marie
• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Sanders Aaron Dale
• Sanders Erika Marie

Classifications

• G09B5/08 Primary

  providing for individual presentation of information to a plurality of student stations · CPC title