Technologies / How "Spritz" technology flashes single words to double your reading speed

A new text streaming technology called Spritz purports to offer just that: "Content can be streamed one word at a time, without forcing your eyes to spend time moving around the page," says the website.

The company hopes the product can be used for people who experience dyslexia or other reading disabilities, since it limits available content. They say they've had good feedback from dyslexic readers and people with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

Spritz uses a display box dubbed 'Redicle' to make text more readable: you only get one word on the screen at a time, and horizontal lines and hash marks direct your eyes to one letter in each word that's coloured red. The font is specially designed for reading on digital devices.

The product aims to remove the time-consuming eye movements of reading, and the fact that what they call "traditional reading" takes up lots of physical space. (The company says the human eye can only focus on about 13 characters at a time, and so "spritzing" requires only 13 characters worth of space to show content).

On the site, you can try spritzing between 250-500 words per minute, but the technology can go up to 1,000 wpm. The team suggests starting in the 200-250 wpm range since it can be "intimidating" to start faster than you'd normally read.

The technology is available for licensing to be used by developers in applications, websites, operating systems or devices.

"As smart devices continue to change shape and become increasingly smaller, Spritz enables users to read comfortably and conveniently," co-founder and CEO Waldman said in a release. "Our technology can be used to read emails, text messages, social media streams, maps or web content and can be integrated onto any mobile device."

The source: Spritzinc.com