Reading-Life Log as a New Paradigm of Utilizing Character and Document Media

Abstract

“You are what you read.” As this sentence implies, reading is important for building our minds. We are investing a huge amount of time for reading to input information. However the activity of “reading” is done only by each individual in an analog way and nothing is digitally recorded and reused. In order to solve this problem, we record reading activities as digital data and analyze them for various goals. We call this research “reading-life log.” In this chapter, we describe our achievements of the reading-life log. A target of the reading-life log is to analyze reading activities quantitatively and qualitatively: when, how much, what you read, and how you read in terms of your interests and understanding. Body-worn sensors including intelligent eyewear are employed for this purpose. Another target is to analyze the contents of documents based on the users’ reading activities: for example, which are the parts most people feel difficult/interesting. Materials to be read are not limited to books and documents. Scene texts are also important materials which guide human activities.