The reading game is about to change forever. Boston-based software developer Spritz has been in “stealth mode” for three years, tinkering with their program and leasing it out to different ebooks, apps, and other platforms.

Now, Spritz is about to go public with Samsung’s new line of wearable technology.

Other apps have offered up similar types of rapid serial visual presentation to enhance reading speed and convenience on mobile devices in the past.

However, what Spritz does differently (and brilliantly) is manipulate the format of the words to more appropriately line them up with the eye’s natural motion of reading.

The “Optimal Recognition Point” (ORP) is slightly left of the center of each word, and is the precise point at which our brain deciphers each jumble of letters.

The unique aspect of Spritz is that it identifies the ORP of each word, makes that letter red and presents all of the ORPs at the same space on the screen.

In this way, our eyes don’t move at all as we see the words, and we can therefore process information instantaneously rather than spend time decoding each word.

The game done changed. Try it for yourself.
250 wpm:


350 wpm:


500 wpm:

I like it's potential for learning but agree nowt beats a smelly old musky book when it's a good novel or heavy philosophy.

not to mention I'm scared silly of the work implications of rapid reading like this which businesses will love to see and freak out about time management etc ffs :/

andyh wrote:
hmmmm..... that's propelled some dystopian images into my mind....
rows & rows of workers sat there just looking at flashing images all day. Nightmare!

I feel like being daring, so I'm going to disagree with everyone who thinks it'd be useful in learning situations.

Words flashing past your eyes at a rate of knots without your having the chance to dwell on them & digest the information would be dismal, imo. If some detail comes up that you weren't sure of, you're liable to completely miss the next 100 words, while your brain insists on trying to decipher what the last bit meant.

With anything the least bit complex, you wouldn't even have time to think slot facts into place by visualising the connections and implications.

It makes me think of when someone's supposed to be teaching you a new computer system at work, and instead of talking you through it and letting you do it, their fingers whizz round the keyboard, while a ton of screens pop up, one after the other, and you've no idea what they pressed to make it happen.

So there!

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.

I grow old … I grow old …
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled