Highlight certain parts of the text to facilitate scanning and understanding of the information
Bionic reading is available to use from the web, as an app on iOS or download the extension from Chrome
These days the phrase “Bionic Reading” has become viral on social networks. What is it about? It is a platform that allows you to speed up reading time. You can try it from the web, as well as download the Chrome extension or use it from the app available for iOS.
The development was done by a Swiss typography design expert named Renato Casutt. The system is based on a method that guides the reader through the text in which different points are highlighted. The user focuses only on the initial syllables of the words and the brain automatically completes the rest.
The brain thus scans the information through the highlighted items to achieve faster reading and comprehension. At one point this is reminiscent of the speed reading techniques that became popular in the 1990s.
“Your brain is a super computer and it reads very well. Bionic Reading revises the texts so that the most concise parts of the words are highlighted. In this way, the eye is guided by the text and the brain remembers previously learned words more quickly”, reads the official site.
The The objective of the platform is to serve as support in the understanding of large volumes of text. “We see technological progress as an opportunity for all those who want to increase the pleasure of reading in a focused and distraction-free way, in a noisy and hectic world”, it is mentioned on the page.
Renato Casutt, creator of Bionic Reading
According to Casutt in a Twitter thread, the idea of creating a platform to optimize the reading process came up in 2009 when he was studying typographic design, but only recently development began in 2016. It took many years of trial and error until it finally released a first version in 2020, which it then optimized until the edition that is available to date.
“What now seems so simple is based on a matrix that I designed to make bionic reading available as an individual reading method. So that each reader can use their own reading settings”, highlights Casutt in a tweet.
The system offers the reader several customization options for that you have an experience to your liking, as detailed below.
In addition, Bionic Reading offers an API for other developers to integrate this reading solution into their platforms or applications.
How to test the tool
Bionic Reading can be used from the web
The easiest way to try Bionic Reading is by going to the official page. From the web it is possible to use the system in a few steps and at no cost. There you can enter the text or URL in the dialog window or drag or add a file. The platform is compatible with the following extensions: XT, RTF, RTFD, EPUB or DOCX.
Once the material has been uploaded, in a few seconds the system will return the text with different highlights so that information can be scanned quickly. As mentioned above, the method assumes that the brain is capable of interpreting words and the meaning of a text just by seeing certain highlighted syllables.
In the upper margin you will see a menu with various customization options. It is possible to condense or expand the letters, modify the alignment of the text, change the brightness, as well as the font and size. Each selected option is instantly reflected in the text.