Research on Digital Reading Experience with ‘PAGE-Turning’ Physical Feedback

Abstract

In recent years, the Internet has become widespread, and many people have their own devices. The purpose of this research is to enhance the sense of physical reading sensation by introducing ‘physical touch’ to reading e-books on digital terminals, which are becoming more complex due to the various functions stored in e-books. In this paper, we focused on the ‘page-turning’ motion as a factor that enhances the reading experience, and conducted experiments and verifications. For the experiment, we used walnut binding, a common binding method, to verify the presence or absence of reading sensation, changes in reading sensation by the different number of pages, and convenience. The results show that the number of pages that provided the best reading experience while keeping the convenience of the digital terminal, was two sheets of paper used for ‘four page-turning’ operations. In addition, we conducted a verification of which position on the paper is touched and how it is turned when people turn pages for paper book reading, based on behavioral observations of 22 experiment participants. As a result, the page-turning motions were categorized into four patterns. Although there were some differences in the positions and used fingers, most people followed a pattern in which they hooked their thumbs to the bottom of the page, held the page with their other fingers, slid their thumbs under the page, and use another finger as a base point by holding the page between these fingers and turning.