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Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

spritzinc.com

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Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#201

Post by Kiro »

zhaphod wrote: post #155
Kiro wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do just fine reading at 250 wpm. Some times I feel just being good enough has lost its value. What is fine? What is good enough? I think it's an absurd statement that in no way is an argument against reading at 500 wpm.

Looks like your comprehension is suffering. No wonder you said 1wpm. Read what I wrote again will you: >Most of the gen-pop is around 200-250 wpm which is why I >said it is good enough. Don't be a troll. At around 200-250 wpm you are in the middle of the normal distribution hence good enough.

Just because it's normal to die of a cardiovascular disease it's good enough and shouldn't be prevented?

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#202

Post by gcb0 »

dangrossman wrote: post #85
philbarr wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read your comment twice, and it seems to me that it actually validates the "first to file, biatch" comment..? According to (a) if someone files a patent first then if there is any prior art that and any subsequent patent applications will fail. According to (b) if someone files a patent first then out of that and any later patent applications the first one will win. Seems to fit with "first to file" to me.

The "invention" has been made public (in paulftw's dated comment) before anyone has filed for a patent. It's no longer patentable material in a first-to-file system as there's now evidence that it's obvious to practitioners of the field, and this evidence predates any filing gcb0 can make. In first-to-invent, he could've claimed an invention date prior to the comment. Sound right?

giving an idea is not like presenting an invention/prior-art.

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#203

Post by pron »

Just tried it. I'm not a native English speaker, and yet I found the 500 wpm speed far too slow, not to mention the loss of the ability to go back and forth. It works: I was able to read and understand, but it's slow, causes sea-sickness, and not comfortable for more than two paragraphs of text. I guess it can work for reading emails on a watch.

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#204

Post by axman6 »

gcb0 wrote: post #202
dangrossman wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "invention" has been made public (in paulftw's dated comment) before anyone has filed for a patent. It's no longer patentable material in a first-to-file system as there's now evidence that it's obvious to practitioners of the field, and this evidence predates any filing gcb0 can make. In first-to-invent, he could've claimed an invention date prior to the comment. Sound right?

giving an idea is not like presenting an invention/prior-art.

If it's enough for a person skilled in the art to produce the invention without needing any inventive thought, then yes, it is.

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#205

Post by visarga »

paulftw wrote: post #34
rosser wrote: post #20

I wonder whether this uses the front-facing camera for blink detection, particularly at higher WPM settings. A blink typically lasts 100-400ms (per Wikipedia), and 500 WPM is .8333... words per 100ms. A blink thus seems very likely to miss a word or two once you're using this the way its creators intend. I don't see any mention of blinking or mitigating its impact on the site, though.

I guess a software could insert a "blink break" every couple of minutes. They could even display an a video commercial during that time, to monetize your blinks. Since everyone seems to try to patent everything: in this comment I claim the invention of a killer business model for speed reading apps. 25 Feb 2014, 4:30pm Sydney time :)

Ha! You're not anonymous any more, paulftw. Now we know you're from Sydney.

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#206

Post by visarga »

lukev wrote: post #40

This is very interesting (and as has been pointed out in other comments, not exactly a new idea). I think its proper application, though, is in a tool for practicing reading, not for actually reading tests. One major thing this approach looses is the inherent non-linearity of text. If I miss a fact and want to back up a bit, or want to pause for a moment and think about something, I can (when reading) without even th…

I find this system really drives up my concentration by sustaining the pace and letting me read without eye scanning.

In the past few years I begun using text to speech coupled with visual reading with the same effect - it makes my concentration more powerful. I don't even like to just read any more - or God forbid - post a comment like this without listening it out aloud. TTS support during reading also has the advantage of allowing me to look away for a time, maybe do something in the room while continuing reading (or reading while I drive).

My favourite voice is Alex from Mac OS. I read dozens of books, thousands of articles and forum threads like this. With forums I still need to scrape out some formatting text with a quick Grease Monkey script though, but it's so fun to hear you out aloud!

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#207

Post by paulftw »

axman6 wrote: post #59
paulftw wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess a software could insert a "blink break" every couple of minutes. They could even display an a video commercial during that time, to monetize your blinks. Since everyone seems to try to patent everything: in this comment I claim the invention of a killer business model for speed reading apps. 25 Feb 2014, 4:30pm Sydney time :)

I'll keep this disclosure in mind when it comes across my desk. But now you've got no chance of patenting it yourself, so touch luck =).

All I wanted is take this patent out of the equation forever.

My thinking is that I've created prior art that would make the idea much much harder to patent. Not a patent lawyer, so may be wrong.

As for how harmful it was for my anonymity to mention Sydney - well, NSA knows way more than that. Besides, I could be sending you all down the wrong trail. or better - confusing a ML algorithm.

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#208

Post by mistercow »

Paul_S wrote: post #174

"Spritzing is reading text with Spritz Inc.’s patent-pending technology." You might as well patent the alphabet, I don't mind. Albeit mostly because I don't live in the US. I don't see how your online service will be able to compete with a free program that does this locally on my machine at no charge. Then again I'm fairly out of touch with the world. I heard a sales-person describe a website as a cloud service and…

Beeline is also patent-pending, and you could make a similar argument there. I have doubts that these patents would hold up in court (although the author of Beeline is a lawyer, so he probably knows better than I do), but I suspect their primary purpose is to dissuade free copycats from trying in the first place.

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#209

Post by mistercow »

Mizza wrote: post #89

Wow, I was instantly sold. Please create an eBook reader for Android which uses this immediately, I love it! I hacked together a crude JavaScript implementation in a few minutes just for kicks: https://github.com/Miserlou/OpenSpritz ..hopefully we'll see more of this stuff everywhere. Good work, please thrive!

I forked and created a bookmarklet: https://gist.github.com/osuushi/9261629 (well, actually a script that builds a bookmarklet).

Re: Spritz – read 500 words per minute without any training

#210

Post by doorhammer »

shawn-furyan wrote: post #193
doorhammer wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand this; I think it depends on what your trying to get out of the book. There are some books I read (for example, I'm reading Stranger in a Strange Land) where I like the book well enough, but I'm not particularly into the prose and/or writing style, so I'm okay missing some things here and there. I think that happens to me when I do "decompressing," where I'm reading a book to unwind my brain after hav…

Hah! I just finished Stranger in a Strange Land this weekend :) It was my introduction to Heinlein. I'd avoided older scifi because I'd wondered whether I would relate to it, and felt confirmed in that suspicion with Stranger. It's not that I'm not glad that I read it, and if I consider the context that it was written in circa the 1950s, then I can definitely appreciate how radical it must have been. But to my sensib…

No, I completely relate. I feel the same way reading it, and like you said, it's not fair, but that doesn't really take away my general feeling about it.

It's the kind of book where I think I can intellectually appreciate it's contribution and what it was in the context it was born out of, but I'm not really super interested in reading more like it.

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