Paper-based comic books are rendered on a static medium, where time can alternatively be sequenced through space. People usually prefer to read comic books at their pace. When comic books are digital, their medium becomes dynamic and interactive, how can the readers' experience be redesigned? We present ComixTrip, a system with which people can read digital comic books with sequential media cues responsively adapted to their reading pace. Our system relies on low-cost eye tracking both for measuring how people read; and for sequencing speech balloons semi-automatically: once a balloon is read, the next one is displayed. We ran a study to analyse how people read text paragraphs with diverse spatial layouts by tracking their gaze. Our preliminary results show that we may accurately track when people have read balloons in comic books. Our system needs to be improved regarding inter- and intra-person reading speed variations.
['Alexis Rochette', 'Cedric Goossens', 'Rudi Giot', 'Christian Frisson']
ComixTrip: Reading Comic Books with Text Sequenced through Gaze Tracking