A Document SkimmerA Document SkimmerOvercoming the soda-straw effectOvercoming the soda-straw effect

Alex KrsticAlex Krstic

Kelly Van BusumKelly Van Busum

Suzanne VogelSuzanne Vogel

OutlineOutline

Problem Overview Problem Overview Prior Work (briefly)Prior Work (briefly) Our WorkOur Work DemoDemo StudyStudy Follow upFollow up

Overview: ProblemOverview: Problem

Listening is slower than reading, but Listening is slower than reading, but speeding up decreases speeding up decreases comprehensioncomprehension Speed up only by increasing reading Speed up only by increasing reading

rate, with NO scanning or skimmingrate, with NO scanning or skimming Skip ahead only by one line or one pageSkip ahead only by one line or one page

Overview: GoalOverview: Goal

Identify features to increase speedIdentify features to increase speed Enable the user to adjust these Enable the user to adjust these

featuresfeatures Trade off speed and comprehensionTrade off speed and comprehension

Prior Work: FeaturesPrior Work: Features

Scan at levels of detail (LODs)Scan at levels of detail (LODs) Speech SkimmerSpeech Skimmer [1] & [1] & AsterAster [2] [2]

Skip 1 segment within a levelSkip 1 segment within a level Speech SkimmerSpeech Skimmer [1] [1]

RefsRefs1.1. Speech SkimmerSpeech Skimmer (Arons, 1993) (Arons, 1993)2.2. AsterAster (Raman, 1994) (Raman, 1994)

Prior Work: ImplementationPrior Work: Implementation

Segment document, semanticallySegment document, semantically Speech divisions: Long pauses [1]Speech divisions: Long pauses [1] Text divisions: Structure boundaries [2]Text divisions: Structure boundaries [2]

Filter out words or sounds within Filter out words or sounds within segmentssegments Spaces [1]Spaces [1] Latter Latter P P number of words or seconds [1] number of words or seconds [1] Detailed (lower-level) info [2]Detailed (lower-level) info [2]

Our Work: FeaturesOur Work: Features

HierarchyHierarchy

Dropping Words/PhonemesDropping Words/Phonemes

Spatial SoundSpatial Sound

Our Work: LOD HierarchyOur Work: LOD Hierarchy

Our Work: Dropping Our Work: Dropping Words/SoundsWords/Sounds

Dropping common wordsDropping common words

Change text to phonemesChange text to phonemes toz, suhntoz, suhn

Remove phonemes without lexical stressRemove phonemes without lexical stress computing computing mpyootng mpyootng

Blending phonemes (Drop spaces)Blending phonemes (Drop spaces) what up what up whuhtuhp whuhtuhp

Our Work: Spatial SoundOur Work: Spatial Sound

Hearing more than one sound source Hearing more than one sound source at the same timeat the same time

2, 3 or 42, 3 or 4

Each source plays different segments Each source plays different segments of the fileof the file

Some sources dominant over the Some sources dominant over the othersothers

Spatial orientationSpatial orientation

Our Work: ScreenshotOur Work: Screenshot

Copyright 2003, ASK (Alex, Suzanne, Kelly)

User EvaluationsUser Evaluations

3 informal, 4 systematic3 informal, 4 systematic

Asked questions, navigate to answerAsked questions, navigate to answer

Hear text in various forms, then Hear text in various forms, then asked questionsasked questions

User Evaluations, 2User Evaluations, 2

HierarchyHierarchy Difficult to explain “hierarchy concept”, underusedDifficult to explain “hierarchy concept”, underused

Sound (Word) RemovalSound (Word) Removal Removing common words was liked (29% of words)Removing common words was liked (29% of words) Either really liked or hated phonemes (29%, 10%) Either really liked or hated phonemes (29%, 10%)

Spatial SoundSpatial Sound 2 sounds worked ok, 3 or more didn’t2 sounds worked ok, 3 or more didn’t

*Lots of different perspectives!*Lots of different perspectives!

New Questions…New Questions…

How much does voice selection matter?How much does voice selection matter?

How much would training help?How much would training help?

What is the relationship between phonemes and What is the relationship between phonemes and speed?speed?

What is the role of prior knowledge? What is the role of prior knowledge?

How does this relate to Ctrl-F?How does this relate to Ctrl-F?

AcknowledgementsAcknowledgements

Peter ParentePeter Parente Pointed us to programming resources Pointed us to programming resources

(BATS; wxPython, Python Numeric 22.0, (BATS; wxPython, Python Numeric 22.0, Win32 libraries)Win32 libraries)

Gave us Python sample code for speech Gave us Python sample code for speech synthesis and spatial soundsynthesis and spatial sound

Experiment participantsExperiment participants (Informed consent requires (Informed consent requires

confidentiality)confidentiality)

Programming ResourcesProgramming Resources

BATS NCDemo – BATS NCDemo – http://www.sourceforge.nethttp://www.sourceforge.net OpenAL.dll, MSVRTD.dll, pyTTS.py, pyOpenAL.py OpenAL.dll, MSVRTD.dll, pyTTS.py, pyOpenAL.py

(I think)(I think) Python – Python – http://http://www.python.org/www.python.org/ Win32 library for Python – Win32 library for Python –

http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/ Python Numeric 22.0 library – Python Numeric 22.0 library –

http://www.pfdubois.com/numpy/http://www.pfdubois.com/numpy/ wxPython GUI library – wxPython GUI library –

http://www.wxpython.org/http://www.wxpython.org/