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

Post by mkl » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 7:24 PM UTC

jxy wrote: post #232

pxeger1 wrote: post #22

This does indeed seem to work for me, but the repeated emphasis on the patents and trademarks makes me suspicious. It looks like a company who cares much more about patent royalties than about their invention - whom I would never be willing to give my money to. Having seen the principle, I could write a browser extension in an hour. I suppose I'll have to wait 25 years (or whatever the French patent expiry length is)…

𝐈 𝐜an'𝐭 𝐫ea𝐝 𝐭h𝐞 𝐩anten𝐭. 𝐖ha𝐭 𝐚bou𝐭 𝐬om𝐞 𝐯arian𝐭? 𝐃oe𝐬 𝐭hi𝐬 𝐭ex𝐭 𝐫ea𝐝 𝐛ette𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐰ors𝐞? 𝐖𝐡a𝐭 a𝐛ou𝐭 𝐭𝐡i𝐬 𝐭e𝐱𝐭? 𝐖ou𝐥𝐝 a𝐧y𝐭𝐡i𝐧𝐠 𝐰o𝐫𝐤 𝐛e𝐭𝐭e𝐫 𝐭𝐡a𝐧 𝐬i𝐦𝐩𝐥e 𝐩𝐥ai𝐧 𝐭e𝐱𝐭?

Post by gnicholas » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 7:33 PM UTC

Llamamoe wrote: post #236

Dangeranger wrote: post #218

I’ve used both Bionic Reading while on Reeder, and the Open Dyslexic font while on Kindle, for several years to similar effect. My personal finding is that it makes the work my eyes need to do to keep on the line, and move from line to line easier. But I will note that the largest increase in reading speed for me, up to 800 words per minute, came from single word focusing. There are tools, such as speed reader mode i…

Out of curiosity, how do dyslexic friendly fonts work? Are they easier for everyone, or is it a case of compensating dyslexia related deficits specifically?

Post by bccdee » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 8:05 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 hunter-gatherer » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 8:18 PM UTC

kizer wrote: post #187

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…

I had better comprehension on the Bionic text right off the bat, personally.

Post by Llamamoe » Thu, Mar 24, 2022, 8:56 PM UTC

gnicholas wrote: post #243

Llamamoe wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, how do dyslexic friendly fonts work? Are they easier for everyone, or is it a case of compensating dyslexia related deficits specifically?

There are a couple popular dyslexic-friendly fonts, OpenDyslexic [1] and Dyslexie. [2] My understanding is that the first is free and the second is not. What they have in common is that both are quite heavy fonts (thick lines), and with a bit of extra kerning (space between letters). They are also designed to have 'b' and 'd' (and other mirror-image pairs) that do not look like mirror images. I have worked in this fi…