Years upon years ago I read about a trick to speedread by just flashing words in giant font at a set speed; your eyeballs don't need to move, and you can force-train yourself by speeding it up. I wrote an Objective C Mac OS app (which I normally never do, so that was quite a bit of messing with completely unfamiliar tools such as Xcode) and the rarely used 'services' menu so that I could select any text and fire up t…
A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
41–50 of 54 posts
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#42If you want to try it out on a PDF, I have implemented this in sioyek PDF reader: https://github.com/ahrm/sioyek You need to enable experimental features in `prefs_user.config` by adding `enable_experimental_features 1` and then enable this mode using `toggle_fastread` command within sioyek. I also experimented with more sophisticated algorithms, you can read about the experiment here: https://ahrm.github.io/jekyll/u…
I forgot to mention that you need to also add this line to your `prefs_user.config`:
use_heuristic_if_text_summary_not_available 1
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#43Years upon years ago I read about a trick to speedread by just flashing words in giant font at a set speed; your eyeballs don't need to move, and you can force-train yourself by speeding it up. I wrote an Objective C Mac OS app (which I normally never do, so that was quite a bit of messing with completely unfamiliar tools such as Xcode) and the rarely used 'services' menu so that I could select any text and fire up t…
When I discovered it many years ago it was first called "spritzing". There are many online apps and extensions that can do this, quick google - https://www.spreeder.com/app.php?intro=1
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#44If someone would like to try this in Firefox (or other browsers), one could simply install a userscript manager browser extension such as Greasemonkey and use the code from convert.js. Here's an example of how I added the functions to all websites in Firefox/Violentmonkey: https://pastebin.com/ZE75x0Uw Here's a screenshot of what it looks like: https://imgur.com/a/bP3bUFP
can get it work with reddit, thanks
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed, this sounds similar to Beeline reader ( https://www.beelinereader.com/ ) which I didn't find helped my reading speed (per their test as well) despite lots of studies cited.
I found that beeline did help me, to the point that I briefly paid for it. I stopped when I realized it was reporting back every site I visited to the developer’s Google Analytics.
Hi Paul, BeeLine creator here. We do log URLs visited on an anonymous basis, so we know where the tool is being used and where we should optimize. These data are never linked to individual user accounts, and I think we'll remove this logging soon from the paid version, since we get enough data via the free users. But even with the free users, we never link this data to users or email addresses. This is detailed in our very short privacy policy, as we take user privacy very seriously.
Please reach out (contact in profile) if there's further info I can provide on this, or if you have other questions. We launched on HN many years ago and have been glad to have so many HN/YC'ers using our tech on their devices and in their apps.
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#46Is there any actual research/study on the efficacy of bionic reading? If it improves reading speed / comprehension significantly then it's really a no-brainer.
I too have been wondering if this is mostly placebo.
For familiar words, don’t our brains automatically read entire words as a single fixation point? I.e. we don’t read in terms of letters, but see the word as an atomic unit?
I would guess that my brain, by seeing certain words hundreds of thousands to millions of times, has found a more efficient way to identify it than the same word with a few letters bolded. Of course, this is based on no data, I’m genuinely curious if this helps.
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#47What about subtle nuances that depend on how the word ends?
For me, it seems to just give my eye a quick target to lock onto, from there I see the entire word (as well as the surrounding letters) in my peripheral vision.
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#48In case you missed the hype, ADHD twitter has been posting a lot about bionic reading: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/what-is-bionic-readin...
And TikTok, it’s a really stupid name for something that, at first blush, really seems to help me read. It’s not really about speed, I don’t care if it helps me read faster, I care that it provides me enough visual stimulation to make it possible to read without pain.
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#49Is there any actual research/study on the efficacy of bionic reading? If it improves reading speed / comprehension significantly then it's really a no-brainer.
I did a wholly unscientific test on the example listed on the bionic reading website. I finished reading the normal example in 12 seconds, and the bionic reading example in 11.5, which I'd say is within the margin of error/normal variance. I don't see the advantage of this, but I'd love to see evidence that suggests otherwise.
I think the hype is being driven mostly by a subset of ADHD folks who have discovered that this might be the “trick” that stimulates them enough to be able to read.
Like I really don’t know how to describe it but the lack of stimulation is debilitating and manifests in physical pain that I basically have to sleep off like a headache. Unless I can hyperfixate on a book I pretty much can’t read and I can’t control what the gremlins in my brain choose to hyperfixate on. It’s a miracle I make it through English.
Re: A Chrome extension for bionic reading on any website
#50I saw the stories about Bionic Reading a few days ago and ended up going down the rabbit hole for a bit. What interested me was that it wasn't the weight of the letters that helped me read quicker but the shorter lines . The examples with and without Bionic Reading formatting were just as easy for me to read but where it fell apart was when I read something with more words per line. Put 12+ words on a line and the Bi…
I've also found narrower columns of text generally easier to read. My browser is usually a half screen so many websites display their mobile mode.
I assumed it was this shorter lines effect that Pocket, Instapaper, etc put wide margins around your articles and large text.