StrategicReading: Understanding Complex Mobile Reading Strategies via Implicit Behavior Sensing

Abstract

Mobile devices are becoming an important platform for reading. However, existing research on mobile reading primarily focuses on low-level metrics such as speed and comprehension. For complex reading tasks involving information seeking and context switching, researchers still rely on verbal reports via think-aloud. We present StrategicReading, an intelligent reading system running on unmodified smartphones, to understand high-level strategic reading behaviors on mobile devices. StrategicReading leverages multimodal behavior sensing and takes advantage of signals from camera-based gaze sensing, kinematic scrolling patterns, and cross-page behavior changes. Through a 40-participant study, we found that gaze patterns, muscle stiffness signals, and reading paths captured by StrategicReading can infer both users' reading strategies and reading performance with high accuracy.