How does Kobo calculate reading statistics?

[Mrs_Often]

Does anyone know how the reading statistics are calculated? Specifically the reading speed/pages per minute?

If it just takes an average of number turned pages over a certain amount of time, the outcome would be influenced by:
- Opening a book, but not yet starting to read (first page open and clock ticking, but not yet reading, for whatever reason)
- Reading, turning pages, and stopping for a quick chat or boiling the kettle for the next cup of tea (things that take long enough to influence reading statistics, but are too quick to put the reader to sleep)

In a perfect world, the statistics clock would thus not yet start ticking until the first page turn was done (as in, yep, I've started reading now), plus, any pages that take more than a standard deviation or two above average to read (whilst making tea) would be disregarded in the statistics. Does anyone know if anything similar is built into the calculations?

[Mrs_Often]

What, no smarty-pants out there dying to figure this out?

[dmapr]

I didn't even know Kobo was calculating the reading speed

[Cinisajoy]

I think it calculates length of time on a page. Now if you run off to make a cup of tea, it will still count that page but once you turn off the kettle and start reading again, it should readjust to your new reading speed.
I know that is how the kindle works.

[GeoffR]

From looking at some of the functions in the firmware the KePub stats are based on a word count of each chapter in the book. A 'reading velocity' is calculated as words per minute, and so I guess the estimates for how long the chapter/book will take to finish are based on that.

There is also a facility to ignore frontmatter and backmatter when calculating the reading stats. I think not enabled by default, but can be activated by adding a feature setting in the device's configuration file. However from what I see the accuracy of this feature would depend on the publisher marking the front/backmatter sections of the book in a recognisable way, it looks for titles like Acknowledgements, About This Book, Copyright, etc.

For ePubs the stats calculation might be different, I have a feeling that no word count is computed for ePubs, which would explain why the time to finish stats are not available. They would have to be based on the page count instead, which would be less accurate.

Edit: I would be good if Kobo made the book's word count available in the library, it would be much more useful to be able to sort books by word count than by file size. Also displaying the words per minute statistic would be more interesting than pages per minute.

[Cinisajoy]

I thought she was asking personal reading speed.

[oren64]

It would be also good if page turn is less than 3 sec, it will not count in the reading statistics.

[peterwardgd]

oh god Mrs_Often, there's plenty. Give it a while they'll be busy salivating over a question like this. I'm off to read!

[Mrs_Often]

Thanks Cinisajoy and Geoff! I wonder... maybe I should build in mini camera to let the device know whether I'm intently reading or off minding the kettle...

[oren64]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Thanks Cinisajoy and Geoff! I wonder... maybe I should build in mini camera to let the device know whether I'm intently reading or off minding the kettle...

You can set the auto sleeping mode to 5-10 min, so if you minding the kettle or actually gone to sleep it stop the statistics clock.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Thanks Cinisajoy and Geoff! I wonder... maybe I should build in mini camera to let the device know whether I'm intently reading or off minding the kettle...

What you might do if you are so inclined is put it to sleep while making the kettle mind.
Because one always needs a nap while the other is misbehaving.
We wouldn't want a dry kettle.

[Mrs_Often]

Yes... The 5 min sleep is indeed what I do, or I manually put it to sleep when I run to the kitchen to tell off the misbehaving kettle. But it takes sooooo long to continue reading when I'm done. And what about the 10 second interruptions when someone feels the need to talk to me when I'm trying to read my book? I can't put device to sleep for those short instances... And yes yes yes I'm a hassle and a nuisance, who cares about 10 extra seconds of reading time on their statistics?! Well... I do apparently

[Cinisajoy]

Is it the 10 seconds or the fact someone interrupted at a good spot in the book?
Or the reason for the interruption was silly?

[Mrs_Often]

All of the above! So frustrating!

[Ksquared]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

But it takes sooooo long to continue reading when I'm done.

I may be missing the sarcasm; does it really take "sooooo long" to continue? Going from sleep to reading is almost instantaneous on my Aura.

I figured (with no facts or research to support my figuring) that the reading statistics were a weighted average sort of thing, with the most recent reading session getting most of the weight, or with particularly long pauses or unnaturally short page turns being ignored.

I do like the estimates of how long the current chapter will take me, and the general knowledge that I have read 7 books in 69 hours. I find the stats to be sufficiently accurate for my use.