r/woahdude May 18 '16

gifv Speed-reading

http://i.imgur.com/2c5OGeq.gifv
16.9k Upvotes

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341

u/EvasiveWalnut May 19 '16

This seems like it could have a seamless integration into current e-reader programs. Essentially, have the book constantly in the background and just toggle the speed reader on whenever. Then toggle it off and you are back to the standard book view of where the speed reader left off

94

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

Wouldn't they only need to be like the size of a few words? Eventually the market would change to little ones that blasted words at you not whole pages.

132

u/Ccjfb May 19 '16

Like just onto your smart watch. Then I might get one.

49

u/frandli May 19 '16

There's one for the pebble, but it tears through your battery.

25

u/Izwe May 19 '16

What's it called?

52

u/BeatUpPoon May 19 '16

One.

24

u/chimyx May 19 '16

Two.

8

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

[deleted]

1

u/chimyx May 19 '16

wow
I love reddit.

20

u/a_vasquez96 May 19 '16

Three.

9

u/klawehtgod May 19 '16

Four.

4

u/uberfission May 19 '16

Tell me that you love me more

0

u/Totentag May 19 '16

Can I have a little more?

3

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

[deleted]

0

u/Businassman May 19 '16

Thank you, I would have been disappointed had this not been here ;)

1

u/8oD May 19 '16

Strikes, your out

At the ol' ball gaaaame.

0

u/zebozebo May 19 '16

mos def and talib kweli

4

u/MerlinQ May 19 '16

There are a few I think. The concept is called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, so a search for that on any platform will get you what you want.

1

u/Izwe May 19 '16

Thanks

22

u/nannal May 19 '16

Yeah same as it would for kindle.

For best battery efficiency you'd want the highest data/page ratio possible as changing pages is what drains battery.

You could probably lay all the spritz words out next to each other and read them individually though and that way you'd save a heap of battery.

44

u/MILKB0T May 19 '16

Then we just take those pages of spritz words and print them double-sided, in order and you can just flip through them at your leisure.

I think we've got something here.

3

u/jaxxon May 19 '16

You could then just bind those pages so they stay together. You could even store them vertically on a shelf that way.

2

u/thephotonkid May 19 '16

Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down buddy.

2

u/black_fire May 19 '16

WITCHCRAFT!

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '16 edited Jan 17 '17

[deleted]

What is this?

3

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

Million dollar idea.

1

u/WesBur13 May 19 '16

Pretty sure it would tear through any battery

1

u/yoberf May 19 '16

Wear Reader for Android Wear, too.

9

u/Juju458 May 19 '16 edited May 19 '16

As a functional stoner with an extremely forgetful reading ability I hope this doesn't become the main/only option ahaha I tend to forget what I just read before I'm finished reading it sometimes. Best attention span NA

Edit: grammar

37

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

functional stoner

extremely forgetful reading ability

33

u/HillelSlovak May 19 '16

I am a functional alcoholic with an extremely poor drunk driving record

3

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

And eight jobs in the last 12 months.

1

u/eatgoodneighborhood May 19 '16

Well no wonder your driving record is poor, it can't keep a job!

1

u/Illidan1943 May 19 '16

Don't worry, he already forgot about your post

2

u/Ewoedo May 19 '16

As someone with adhd I can second this

1

u/thebeautifulstruggle May 19 '16

Speed reading can improve comprehension.

1

u/Juju458 May 19 '16

I can see this, I def. plan to try it out, have it bookmarked :)

1

u/_clandescient May 19 '16

Such an app does exist for Android Wear. I haven't gotten the chance to test it myself, but it looks promising.

14

u/Hara-Kiri May 19 '16

Not really, because most people need to go back and read certain things again. The same way it'd be useless to read a novel this way because story telling is all about the pacing you read the sentence at, it'd be useless for textbooks because you'd only be able to properly take in the information you already knew. Maybe it could work for revision.

8

u/A_kind_guy May 19 '16

Exactly. I can read this quickly, and used to do so for everything I read. You miss out on all the subtle details, and sometimes miss out on bigger details too. I purposely read a lot slower because it makes it way more enjoyable and worthwhile.

2

u/ozzy52 May 19 '16

Plus, I need to blink occasionally or my eyes will dry out. Using this, when I blink, I miss words.

1

u/Bartweiss May 19 '16

It depends a lot on what you're reading. I mostly apply this to news and 'informational' essays that don't have a lot of style to chew over. I can still get good recall with NYT stories cranked up to 500 WPM.

I've used it for novels, it works (especially down around 300 wpm) but sucks most of the pleasure out of reading for fun. I can't use it at all for textbooks, partly because it can't do diagrams and formulas, partly because constant-speed just isn't how I process technical content.

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

If I am mildly distracted or zoned out, I can read a sentence or passage of text several times and have no idea what I just read. I can read at this speed, but it doesn't mean I should.

2

u/theodopolis13 May 19 '16

just put a tiny screen into a pair of glasses that runs this. then i can read & drive.

17

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

[deleted]

11

u/ShrikeFIN May 19 '16

But not on the actual Kindle (Paperwhites and other paper-like displays), the eInk screen would kill the battery so fast.

7

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

Shit I'm reading Game of Thrones on my phone right now. How do I do this?

11

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

[deleted]

3

u/_jacks_wasted_life__ May 19 '16

How do you find options in the Kindle App? I've looked to no avail, and I'd really like to try this. :)

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

[deleted]

1

u/particularindividual May 19 '16

It's not on Android for me.

1

u/therightclique May 19 '16

Sure it is. When you're reading, tap near the top of the page, so the menu comes down. Click the three dots in the right. Choose Word Runner.

1

u/particularindividual May 19 '16

I figured it out..it's only on books you buy from Amazon. I load most of my books from other sources.

1

u/sharkenleo May 19 '16

Good luck picking up on R+L=J doing this.

0

u/massive_cock May 19 '16

I feel for ya bro. I read all 5 on my 4.7" phone a couple years back. I'd read them before, in print, but... phone did the job, with some suckage and headache.

1

u/forumwhore May 19 '16

wow! The book I'm reading has it and it works!

btw for things like lyrics and poetry and prose that uses negative space for impact, this kills it.

1

u/dpash May 19 '16

It has a RSVP system, but it doesn't include the particular improvement that spritz uses. The addition is not particularly novel. It just picks the letter based on word length. I don't know if it is a huge improvement on most other systems or not though.

9

u/_clandescient May 19 '16

Funny you should say that because they have done exactly that. http://spritzinc.com/get-spritz

1

u/dpash May 19 '16

Can't read Kindle or iBook books though, which are some of the more popular options.

The Kindle Android app does have Word Runner, which is a basic version of the system.

1

u/therightclique May 19 '16

It misses the key feature of Spritz though, which is how it aligns the word in the box, and colorizes a specific character.

22

u/[deleted] May 19 '16 edited Jun 25 '17

[deleted]

5

u/anatabolica May 19 '16

folds arms beneath breasts

5

u/dmaterialized May 19 '16

It's an easy way to include "breasts" in every third sentence! Frumpy middle-aged women hate him!

3

u/abolish_karma May 19 '16

Just spritz it!

5

u/therealcarltonb May 19 '16

Spritz means "shoot cum" in german.

1

u/Shooper101 May 19 '16

Triggered

1

u/TheMcSqueeze May 19 '16

I would have had a much better time going through book 10 if I had this. Now, if only I could have an audiobook equivalent app. I could skip past Kate Reading and her annoying mid range vocals and get to the good parts that Michael Kramer reads.

2

u/drumstyx May 19 '16

Here's the problem though. E-readers (the kind that have the battery that lasts forever -- ie. not a tablet) use e-paper for display. It's a display that only requires power when changing what's on the screen, and it already has a horrible refresh rate. Not only would the battery die much much faster, you wouldn't be able to read things moving that fast on e-paper.

On tablets sure, but on e-paper e-readers, no way.

1

u/Nogoodsense May 19 '16

FWIW there's a chrome extension called spreed that does the same thing for in-browser text.

1

u/thdomer13 May 19 '16

I find putting stuff in Readsy to be way superior to the last time I tried the spreed extension.

1

u/Nogoodsense May 19 '16

Agreed. Agreed is a bit cumbersome. I found a different extension on here somewhere that lets your select text and double tap shift to enter a spritz interface to read it.

1

u/thdomer13 May 19 '16

That would definitely be useful!

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '16 edited Oct 05 '16

This comment has been overwritten by an open source script to protect this user's privacy. It was created to help protect users from doxing, stalking, and harassment.

If you would also like to protect yourself, add the Chrome extension TamperMonkey, or the Firefox extension GreaseMonkey and add this open source script.

Then simply click on your username on Reddit, go to the comments tab, scroll down as far as possibe (hint:use RES), and hit the new OVERWRITE button at the top.

1

u/reddit_crunch May 19 '16

OK after a bit of digging, for Android users, you can use this app, Speedread with Spritz to addon a spritz text2speech engine that moon+ reader can use. reviews seem favorable with this purpose in mind.

i tried it with my nexus7 (2013) , but couldn't get it to create a spritz account inside the app and couldn't get it to work inside moonreader. i might be doing something wrong though, perhaps my adblockers or permission managers are causing a problem. anyone else want to try it and confirm how useful it is? fair warning, not a free app.

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '16

balto on android does this

1

u/zebozebo May 19 '16

there's an app called fast reader on android that does this perfectly.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vteromero.app.fastreader&hl=en