By Rebecca Sirull, News Staff
For many college students, reading is an integral part of any curriculum, which means that many a night is spent in the library the day before papers are due sifting through novels. However, new Boston-based technology, Spritz, will allow users to read fast enough to finish a 500 page novel in five hours.
Spritz uses a process called rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) to eliminate the time it takes the eye to move from word to word and increase reading speed. RSVP technology has actually been around since the late 1970s, but the creators of Spritz said they have determined, through extensive research, the optimum word placement, font and timing to achieve the highest speed and information retention rate for readers.
“The thing that we did that’s truly groundbreaking is to utilize the science around how the eye and the brain work in conjunction with each other to help you read,” Spritz Vice President of Operations Jamie Locke said. “We took the best research and information available in those different areas, combined them together and we present words to you as they’re shown one by one, exactly where your eyes and your brain are expecting them to go directly to being able to process the information that you’re reading.”
The company got its start when co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Maik Maurer was working as an assistant professor at the Technical University of Munich in Munich, Germany. With so much reading to do on a daily basis, Maurer decided to research methods of reading more efficiently, eventually leading him to begin developing Spritz, along with colleague Matthias Klein, CEO Frank Waldman and Locke.
Now, after nearly three years of extensive research, testing and trial and error, the technology is ready to be implemented into software. Starting this Friday, developers will be able to access Spritz and begin designing applications, websites and other user platforms incorporating its technology. This process usually takes about a week, Locke said, at which point Spritz will be available to the public through any number of formats.
“The reason why we structured our company in the way that we did was so that it could become ubiquitous in terms of, if you have something you’d like to read with Spritz, there will be an application or a website or a piece of technology that you will be able to use to do so,” Locke said.
The Northeastern community responded with mixed reviews. While most students preferred reading on paper to reading on a digital device regardless, some were interested in the technology while others thought it was an unnecessary advancement.
“I don’t know about everyday things, but if you’re in a rush I can definitely see someone using it,” Steve Denison, a freshman computer science major, said. “If I was reading the news I would probably use it because it’s faster for something like that. I think people will be interested,”
However, other students were not quite as enthusiastic.
“It’s going to revolutionize more than not having a book in your hand, which I like more than reading off of my phone or a Kindle or whatever, so it just scares me that technology is going so far, to the point where it’s like reading for me,” Jessica Cooper, a senior architecture major, said.
Despite some students’ concerns that Spritz’s impact on their entire reading experience would be too extreme, Locke emphasized that the goal was not to destroy traditional reading, but rather to employ the technology as a supplement.
“We really want to be centered around helping people to read the things that they have to read much more quickly and much more efficiently so they can go and do the things that they want to do, like taking plenty of time to read a Shakespearean play,” he said.
According to the Spritz website, users retain just as much information as with traditional reading and can even retain more with some experience. There is no special training required to use the technology, but with practice users can increase their speed up to about 1,000 words per minute.
“The people that are most interested in Spritz at this point are those that have a large quantity of reading that they need to do, usually associated with their job, and they want to be able to get through it more quickly so they can focus on other things,” Locke said. “They want part of their day back and Spritz gives them the opportunity to do that.”
