Show HN: Bionic Reading – Formats text to make it faster to read

Post by toss1 » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:04 PM UTC

renato_casutt wrote: post #95

I am very glad that Bionic Reading is being discussed in HN. I am aware that it cannot help everyone. But I also get a lot of feedback from people who are helped a lot by this reading mode. Imagine you have problems with reading. You don't realize what a huge hurdle that is until you talk to people who are affected. Being ashamed in front of society. The problem of learning new things. Being called stupid. And these…

Post by w-m » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:10 PM UTC

hexomancer wrote: post #136

phpnode wrote: post #128

Cool, here's a quick hack to try a similar technique with the comments in this thread (copy and paste into dev tools: $$('span.commtext').forEach(span => { const frag = document.createDocumentFragment(); span.textContent.split(/\s+/).forEach(word => { const len = Math.ceil(word.length * 0.3); const leading = document.createElement('strong'); leading.textContent = word.slice(0, len); const trailing = document.createTe…

I made a version which works in all web pages, it is still very hacky though: function bionifyPage(){ function bionifyWord(word) { if (word.length == 1) { return word; } var numBold = Math.ceil(word.length * 0.3); // return " " + word.slice(0, numBold) + " " + + " " + word.slice(numBold) + " "; return " " + word.slice(0, numBold) + " " + " " + word.slice(numBold) + " "; } function bionifyText(text) { var res = ""; if…

Post by Dangeranger » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:12 PM UTC

nickjj wrote: post #118

karatinversion wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite is true, in fact - a patent is a monopoly on the patented technology, no matter where alternative implementations come from. You might be thinking of “clean room” techniques which protect against claims of copyright infringement.

> You might be thinking of “clean room” techniques which protect against claims of copyright infringement. Ah yes, that's what I was thinking of -- thanks. Specifically a scene from an episode of Halt and Catch Fire (I won't describe it due to spoilers). That's a real bummer for patents though and makes me wonder how something like Amazon's 1-click checkout was able to be patented. I wonder how "save billing details…

Post by smithza » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:19 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #84

> Bionic reading aims to encourage a more in-depth reading and understanding of written content by reading faster? I mean the examples are pretty compelling and it did feel like I was reading faster, but at the same time their goals are at odds - faster reading doesn't necessarily mean more attentive reading, or being able to absorb more information. Still, interesting technique. I just wish they made their examples…

Post by talhof8 » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 5:24 PM UTC