CinemaGazer: Development and Evaluation of a System for Watching Videos at Very High Speed

Abstract

This paper presents a technology that enables the watching of videos at very high speed. Subtitles are widely used in DVD movies, and provide useful supplemental information for understanding video contents. We propose a “two-level fast-forwarding” scheme for videos with subtitles, which controls the speed of playback depending on the context: very fast during segments without language, such as subtitles or speech, and “understandably fast” during segments with such language. This makes it possible to watch videos at a higher speed than usual while preserving the entertainment values of the contents. We also propose “centering” and “fading” features for the display of subtitles to reduce fatigue when watching high-speed video. We implement and publish a versatile video encoder that enables movie viewing with two-level fast-forwarding on any mobile device by specifying the speed of playback, the reading rate, or the overall viewing time. The effectiveness of our proposed method was discussed and demonstrated in an evaluation study.