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Speed Reading, Spirtz And Utility

Phones, computers, tablets, and all other forms of electronic wizardry
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Phantomboy
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Speed Reading, Spirtz And Utility

Post by Phantomboy »

Speed reading has always been a concept that I knew of, but never really knew if I was, 1) Actually doing or, B) was capable of doing. Don't get me wrong, I read at a fairly average pace, in fact, if I remember correctly it was above the average for my division of education.

However, there was this website here that caught my attention and got me thinking a bit more about speed reading. It never really occurred to me that perhaps the way we were presenting text affected our ability to read quickly. While I think most systems we use today are built around the standard format of presenting all of or at least a large chunk of text, allow people read through it before giving them the option to cycle through more text, I do think that this method could find its utility, somewhere..

I am curious as to what your reading habits are and furthermore, your thoughts on a system like this. After about five minutes, roughly, sitting with it, I was able to get up to 600 words per minute and comfortably understand the text. What speed currently is the most comfortable for you?
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Baufritz
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Post by Baufritz »

Within the first few minutes, I was able to get to around 500wpm without losing the content.
I'll definitely pursue this a bit.

Are any books already available with Spritz?
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Sebastian Lawe
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Post by Sebastian Lawe »

Woah. I was able to to do 700wpm.
I'm definitely investing in this.
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Post by bionicnacho »

This is actually pretty awesome! I was able to get to 700wpm pretty quickly. Being able to read books with this technology would be amazing.
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DvChayz
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Post by DvChayz »

this stressed me out
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Phantomboy
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Post by Phantomboy »

Yeah, Dv, I think it depends on many different habits of reading. With some practice, I know that there is always room for improvement.

I just recently recommended it to a close friend of mine, who said "That's really amazing! It's also nice that the narrator gives you such an ego boost!" Haha, so I'm glad it seems to be well received.

I could see this work really with for subtitles, because I know speed of subtitles is always been something that is hard to balance!
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Post by Baufritz »

I'd love a programm that you just put a text file in, and it converts it for you into spritz text.
Gotta apply for that SDK :D
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Post by Sebastian Lawe »

Baufritz wrote:I'd love a programm that you just put a text file in, and it converts it for you into spritz text.
Gotta apply for that SDK :D
I found a chrome extension that spritzifies selected text.
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Post by ElectroYoshi »

Holy Crap. That is amazing. I was able to get all the way up to 700 in about 5 minutes.

I doubt I'd use it a ton, but I will have to invest in it methinks. :P
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Phantomboy
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Post by Phantomboy »

I bet it is near impossible to do on Xenforo, but it would be kind of cool to see a selectable user preference, where when you click on a post it flips through it at a speed set in your preferences, but prior to clicking on the post the text is displayed normally. Haha, oh dreams :P

Yeah, if I ever need to crunch read some text - I might look into that extension!
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Post by ElectroYoshi »

Phantomboy wrote:I bet it is near impossible to do on Xenforo, but it would be kind of cool to see a selectable user preference, where when you click on a post it flips through it at a speed set in your preferences, but prior to clicking on the post the text is displayed normally. Haha, oh dreams :P

Yeah, if I ever need to crunch read some text - I might look into that extension!

Just imagine: I could save myself major work time in my history class! :D
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Phantomboy
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Post by Phantomboy »

Haha, exactly! In fact, I believe the text said the average comprehension of text given to testers was higher. So, that may not be a bad idea! Also, mobile reading - that could be very nice! (Hopefully there is a way to pause and rewind through words by swiping)
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Post by Sebastian Lawe »

Phantomboy wrote:I bet it is near impossible to do on Xenforo, but it would be kind of cool to see a selectable user preference, where when you click on a post it flips through it at a speed set in your preferences, but prior to clicking on the post the text is displayed normally. Haha, oh dreams :P

Yeah, if I ever need to crunch read some text - I might look into that extension!
The Chrome extension I have lets you do just that.

Its called "Sprint Read".
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Post by Phantomboy »

Hmm, alright - I will look into that! Sebastian, I know you program - how difficult are systems like this to set up, like can people easily implement this directly into their websites? I would imagine there is some sort of thing that lest you count milliseconds and write text on a page :P
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Post by Baufritz »

Phantomboy wrote:Hmm, alright - I will look into that! Sebastian, I know you program - how difficult are systems like this to set up, like can people easily implement this directly into their websites? I would imagine there is some sort of thing that lest you count milliseconds and write text on a page :P
I guess you'd have to look at the SDK...

EDIT: I have access to the SDK now, didn't look into it yet because of finals and stuff, but hopefully I'll find time soon...
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Post by bionicnacho »

So yesterday I was actually going to read an eBook on my phone when I remembered this whole Spritzing thing so I decided to look up "Spritz" on the Google Play Store and found an app called "Sprint Reader", an app that uses spritz technology.

The app lets you import any eBook in an .epub format and can even import whatever's on your clipboard. I imported the eBook and I got presented with a white background with the spritz thing in the middle. The controls were simple, but kind of funky: Slide your finger to the right under the spritz box to increase the WPM, or to the left to decrease it. Tap to pause the reading, and swipe up or down to scroll through the text (when you do this a faded version of the book appears behind the spritz box, so that you can see where you are in relation to everything else.)

I was able to read about 60 pages pretty quickly, and I gotta say it's really nice to use. You don't have to move your eyes anywhere: just stare at the while letter and let your brain do the work. Even while going pretty fast and having learned english as a second language (the book was in english), I was able to understand everything and retain the information, like what the Spritz site said.

At first, it took some getting used to since you can't pronunce the words in your head or you'll get lost. Usually when I read I just automatically pronounce the words with my tongue, It's a habit I guess but you can't do that while using spritz. Just look and let your brain do the work.

I do have to point out, though, that while using this for a long time your eyes do get tired, because you're just staring at a single point on the screen.

All in all, it was a nice experience and I think I'll keep using it in the future. Seeing this being integrated into more things would be nice.
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Post by Phantomboy »

That is really really great to hear, I had wondered if an eBook iteration of this existed. I will likely be giving it a try and I am very excited by this whole thing as a concept :P
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Post by Baufritz »

I need to read about five books in the next two weeks before exams start because of my inability to schedule time for it. I'll definitely be using this for longer periods of time.
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Post by bionicnacho »

I also found this other one called "Fast Reader". This one seems to have a nicer interface and since you can actually see the controls unlike the other one it might be better. The only thing I don't like about it (Judging from the screenshots, since I haven't tried it) is that it doesn't have that red letter in the middle, which is what you're supposed to focus on while Spritzing. I'll have to try it out later. This one also lets you go all the way up to 1000wpm.

EDIT: Whoa there's actually A LOT of them around that use this technology that support more formats and have a better UI. If you don't like any of those two, look around because there are tons to choose from.
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Post by Wowfunhappy »

Y'know, this whole thing is making me reconsider how useful a smartwatch could be.

I used to think they would be great devices for checking quick notifications that I would later read in full by pulling out my phone. But y'know, if you only display one word at at time—if reading is actually easier when you only display one word at a time—a smartwatch could do that. Easily.

Most of what I do on my phone ultimately comes down to reading, so it isn't hard to imagine a smart watch actually replacing my phone, if it displayed text using this method. The one thing that might be hard is typing...
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