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

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

#251

Post by gnicholas »

Llamamoe wrote: post #249
gnicholas wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Do you have any other assistive technology examples other than beeline reader? That thing is absolutely fantastic, I love it.

You could check out Helperbird, which offers various readability tweaks. [1]

Glad you like BeeLine — we've integrated with several HN/YC'ers, ranging from blogs [2] to mobile apps. [3] Please feel free to reach out (developer@beelinereader.com) if you're interested in working together.

1: https://www.helperbird.com/

2: https://wildcardpeople.com/what-is-a-wildcard-person

3: https://insightbrowser.com/collections/reading

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

#252

Post by brap »

andai wrote: post #151
brap wrote: post #146

A better way to make your text readable is to: 1. make it short 2. use simple words 3. use lists I feel 80% of text is just filler.

I often hear this sentiment in book reviews. "This book could have been expressed in the length of an article, but then they couldn't have published a book." I suppose the more common version is "this article could have been expressed as a tweet!"

Especially videos, which often take 10min to get to the point.

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

#253

Post by DantesKite »

blackbear_ wrote: post #9

Actually this made it harder for me to read. The text felt "bumpy", unlike normal in text where it felt smoother and flowing. Maybe it's just a matter of habit. Anyways, I don't believe speed-reading to be effective, especially for comprehension and long-term retention. The best and fastest way to get an overview of a written piece is not to read it faster, but to skip most of the content. Most of it is just supporti…

I felt the same way. It slows me down. But I imagine it would be very useful for dyslexic people. I have a family member who struggles to read; it's as if they have to consciously process what each character means. From that perspective, it's not so much speed reading, but bringing up people with slow reading to normal levels.

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

#254

Post by DiggyJohnson »

dymk wrote: post #216
DiggyJohnson wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s probably some sort of important lesson here…

Maybe, but Sangeeth is not here to tell us if they are Sikh or not, so it's hard to say. I think it's unfortunate that (at the time of writing) the comments about the product and its effectiveness are ranked lower than this discussion about the _possibility_ that a non-Sikh person has been represented as Sikh. If Sangeeth themselves had popped up in this thread to comment on the choice of emoji, then sure, but it's j…

Oh I agree, the lesson learned should be: let's not spend our attention on race and identity because it leads to these bizarre situations among many other things. I barely understand how we ended up like this.

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

#255

Post by DiggyJohnson »

oauea wrote: post #223
DiggyJohnson wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s probably some sort of important lesson here…

Yes, such as stop fixating so much on race or ethnicity and instead appreciate the product for what it is.

Thank you. I didn't find the energy to put it into words when I first commented. I yearn for this world.

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

#256

Post by behnamoh »

bogwog wrote: post #193
renato_casutt wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you very much for your answer. No, I will definitely use it for good. For sure. Best regards from the Alps Renato

The only way to use a patent “for good” is to prevent someone else from patenting it and exploiting it. If you’re serious, then release a copy-left license for the patent (but not necessarily your implementation/product/sdk) Otherwise, just add your commercial licensing terms to your website already so people aren’t misled into thinking they’ll be able to do anything with this idea unless they pay you.

Agreed. I don’t think this deserves to be shown to HN given that most people here are strong supporters of free and open source

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

#257

Post by Llamamoe »

gnicholas wrote: post #233
enduku wrote: post #230

Great work, congrats! Another app Beeline Reader[0] seems a lot similar to this. It was launched many years ago I suppose. All the best with the product! [0] https://www.beelinereader.com/

BeeLine founder here — I'd say we are similar in that we both work to improve visual tracking and speed up the reading process. BeeLine's focus is perhaps more on return sweeps, but in the grand scheme of things, we're both pushing in the same direction!

Out of curiosity, what exactly does BeeLine do, and how have you developed it?

It seems to color the beginning and end of each line, so that your eyes naturally follow from one line to the next, is this correct?

Have you tried and tested any other ideas?

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

#258

Post by gnicholas »

Llamamoe wrote: post #257
gnicholas wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BeeLine founder here — I'd say we are similar in that we both work to improve visual tracking and speed up the reading process. BeeLine's focus is perhaps more on return sweeps, but in the grand scheme of things, we're both pushing in the same direction!

Out of curiosity, what exactly does BeeLine do, and how have you developed it? It seems to color the beginning and end of each line, so that your eyes naturally follow from one line to the next, is this correct? Have you tried and tested any other ideas?

BeeLine improves visual tracking by displaying text with a color gradient, which wraps from the end of one line to the beginning of the next. Like Bionic Reader, it improves visual tracking across the line.

It also improves visual tracking during the 'return sweep' — when you move your eyes from right to left, to find the new line.

The colors are user-configurable, and we make first-party tools like browser plugins, [1] PDF converters, [2] and iOS apps. [3] We also partner with reading and education platforms like Blackboard [4], who have embedded our tech in their products.

We do have a few other tricks up our sleeve, but for now this is the main event. It's not too shabby, and has won social impact awards from MIT Solve [5] and the United Nations Solutions Summit. [6]

1: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-reader/ifj...

2: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/beeline-reader-pdf...

3: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/beeline-extension/id1571623734

4: https://ally.ac/covid19

5: https://solve.mit.edu/articles/meet-the-solver-teams-introdu...

6: https://unfoundation.org/blog/post/meet-10-solution-makers-t...

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

#259

Post by bmn__ »

FTA:

> this book author did not write his texts in written German, but in a form of the Swiss language, which I did not understand with reading. So I noticed that I have great difficulties to read the text.

This makes me angry. The German Swiss have deprived themselves of their own culture by normalising the practice of writing a German variety that is not theirs, and that is not spoken. The other three Swiss ethnicities wouldn't dream of doing such a nonsense.

It is nigh 100 years past time that someone who cares – following the footsteps of Adelung, Karadžić, Manzoni – pushes through with https://als.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieth-Schreibung and takes it to the schools, so that in future generations people like Renato won't have trouble reading their own native language, and the pupils of Romandy learn a (secondary) language that is actually useful for orally communicating with their fellow countrymen, unlike what happens today.

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

#260

Post by tomtung »

camel_Snake wrote: post #196
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)…

There's an English language family member of this granted patent that was filed in the UK. English specification starts around page 30: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/96/4d/2b/749f7a4...

The rules are more clearly depicted on page 4, with different variations depicted on the pages following that.

Looks fairly straightforward to implement. Until this is more widely available "officially", I'll probably just hack up some Chrome extension for personal use and try it out.

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