Created the tiddly wiki this morning, documented some of yesterday's surfing, and added some new background research. \n\nThe expressive typography content is a bit out of sorts, but a lot of the code for parsing out text would be appropriate for creating a semantic markup that was transformed to a timed presentation.
FireReader\nSpeedReading\nRelatedWork\n
FireReader is a project to create a FireFox extension aimed at facilitating reading. This tiddler is AndyEd's background work and a beginning to a mozdev collaboration with MartinM, creator of the project and the HighlightPacer prototype.\n\nThe project is hosted at **http://firereader.mozdev.org**\n\nStatus: Functional prototype of HighlightPacer ReadingMode. ToDo includes packaging, adding a LinedRSvP reading mode, and improved TriggerMethods.\n\n\n
A highlight span is moved along textual content, rapidly highlighting appropriate text lengths. This takes some of the load of the brain for planning eye movments and breaks the normal learned pattern of eye movements in text.
FireReader\nToDo\nSpeedReading\nRelatedWork\n
Basics\n* Eye Movement\n** http://www.readingonline.org/research/eyemove.html\n\nResearch on Speed Reading\n\n* Reading dynamically displayed text\n** Kang, T. Jin and Muter, Paul (1989) Reading dynamically displayed text. Behavior & Information Technology 8(1):pp. 33-42. http://cogprints.org/1971/\n*** ...Except for the largest step-size, comprehension was as high in the Times Square conditions as in the RSVP condition. The subjects expressed a significant preference for smooth scrolling Times Square over any other condition. Experiment 2 showed that comprehension for smooth scrolling Times Square was at least as high as that for RSVP at presentation rates ranging from 100 to 300 words per minute...\n*** * RSvP vs TimesSquare\n*RSvP (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation)\n** Castelhano, Monica S. and Muter, Paul (2001) Optimizing the reading of electronic text using rapid serial visual presentation. Behaviour & Information Technology 20(4):pp. 237-247. http://cogprints.org/1934/\n*** ...Past studies have shown that the compact method of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) is efficient but not well liked. Two experiments were conducted to explore ways of improving the preference for and feasibility of RSVP. In Experiment 1, the effects of a completion meter, PunctuationPauses, and VariableWordDuration were studied. Although the Normal Page and Sentence-by Sentence formats were still superior, post-experiment ratings indicated that punctuation pauses improved user preference, and preference for RSVP in general increased with practice...\n** Is RSVP a Solution for Reading from Small Displays? By Michael Bernard, Barbara Chaparro, & Mark Russell. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/2S/rsvp.htm\n** Reading from a Palm Pilot™ Using RSVP. Mark C. Russell, Marilyn James & Andrea Cohlmia. http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/41/rsvp_palm.htm
Existing is HighlightPacer, see also LinedRSVP.
Related Software\n*RelatedWorkFirefox\n*RelatedWorkReaders\n\nRelated Concepts\n* ExpressiveTypography \n* Advertisting: Video in film, on TV, and on the web uses timed text presentation extensively. The Janus commercials of some years back are one of the most memorable speed reading like presentations (using VariableWordDuration)\n* Hypermedia\n** Mark Amerika's GammaTron (http://gammatron.com) is an early use of javascript to control the timing of text and media presentation\n** SMiL is a potential technology standard for presentation control -- unsure of status\n\nAround the Blogosphere:\n* BoingBoing on mobile RSvP: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/27/new_way_to_read_on_m.html\n* Future of the Book blog: http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/2005/06/index.html\n\nFlash Type Fun\n* TypeDrawing Flash Showcase: http://www.storyabout.net/typedrawing/\n* ActionScript.com 5/2005 Feature: http://actionscript.com/Article/tabid/54/ArticleID/expressive-typography/Default.aspx\n
OpenBerg: http://openberg.sourceforge.net/\n* E-book reader. Looks to be stalled at FireFox 1.5 03/2006. \nFireDictionary: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1631\n* Translates text on mouseover\nParaGrasp: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2266\n* Highlights paragraphs for easier focus\nMozilla.org 1.0 Mission Reader: http://surfmind.com/lab/moz/screenplay/mission1.html\n* AndyEd's Mozilla 1.0 launch party DHTML\n
* Dictator\n** Open Source, wxPython\n** Not active\n** http://dictator.kieranholland.com/dictator.html\n* Lists\n** SurfPack: http://www.surfpack.com/software/speedreading/\n** RSVP Reader Comparison: http://www.minezone.org/wiki/Main/RSVPReaderComparison
planning the reader
FireReader
Some truisms:\n* You get out what you put into it \n* Alternative reading techniques require learning\n* There's a lot of speed reading history\n\nA key pivot of methods for speed reading are ReadingModes. See the PsychologyOfReading for a overview of relevant research. Since this project is budding, if you're eager to get started, try RelatedWorkReaders.\n\nAt wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_reading\n\n
* Bugfixes\n* Packaging\n* Triggers\n* ReadingModes \n* ReadingModeDesign\n* ReadingModePreferences