Speed Read on your Cell Phone One Word at a Time

By Ina Fried and Michael Kanellos, Staff Writers, CNET News.com

For those who have squinted to read text on their cell phones, Stanford University researchers think they have hit upon a better way: Do it one word at a time. The technique, known as Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, or RSVP, makes up for the tiny screens on mobile phones by presenting just one word at a time in the center of the screen for a fraction of a second before moving on to the next word. As a result, each word is far easier to read than is the case with standard presentations, in which a sentence or two of much smaller type scroll across the screen at a time. In a demo version of the software, dubbed BuddyBuzz, the user gets to decide how fast the text scrolls. At its fastest, the words fly far faster than a reader can sound them out. But those who learn to read words without pronouncing them in their heads can actually read as many as 1,000 words a minute, making it potentially far faster than traditional methods of scrolling.

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You can also do some reading about BuddyBuzz, its technology and some of the many publications that they’ve converted for BuddyBuzz reading.

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