Could Your Future Smartphone Help You Read Faster? Boston-based startup Spritz has introduced a new speed-reading format that will reportedly be available on Samsung's forthcoming Gear 2 smartwatch and Galaxy S5 smartphone.

By Geoff Weiss

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If everything in tech is becoming faster, perhaps our reading abilities should follow suit.

The average reader spends just 20 percent of the time processing content -- the remaining 80 percent is spent moving one's eyes from word to word. So says Boston-based startup Spritz, which is looking to upend the standard paginal reading model with new technology that it claims could allow people to read more than twice as fast as they do now.

And one of the biggest digital conglomerates is standing firmly behind the development: Samsung's forthcoming Gear 2 smartwatch and Galaxy S5 smartphone, announced at the Mobile World Congress, will reportedly ship with Spritz in their respective email applications. Spritz says its technology is designed specifically for smaller mobile screens.

Related: Samsung Galaxy S5 Smartphone: A Quick Preview

The technology scraps traditional "pages" for a small box within which only one word or syllable appears at a time. By design, this minimizes the "saccades," or lengthy transitions, that our eyes must make between words. It also means that e-readers no longer have to scroll through or magnify lengthy pages of text:

The average adult reader typically clocks 300 words per minute, according to a recent study by Staples. Spritz users, on the other hand, can select speeds between 250 and 1,000 words per minute in increments of 50. At the highest end of this spectrum, a reader might get through an entire novel like Catcher in the Rye in a little over an hour.

Related: E-Reading Startup Oyster Raises $14 Million

Each word is also aligned within the box, or "redicle," to emphasize its Optimal Reading Point (ORP). Vertical hash marks and a single red letter denote each word's ORP, or the fragment whereby meaning is most easily processed.

The company also determined that the human eye can only focus on a maximum of 13 characters at once, and so longer words are hyphenated accordingly. Spritz also uses a specially-designed font for maximum readability.

In the FAQ section of its site, the company envisions 'spritzing' for email, texting, social media, closed captioning, digital books and also to embed messages within images or videos.

The company says that the new reading technique is immediately learnable by children and adults alike, with no special training required. Three years of "stealth" research also revealed that retention is just as good with spritzing as it is with traditional reading.

Related: College Entrepreneur Creates App to Sync Music With Running Speed

Geoff Weiss

Former Staff Writer

Geoff Weiss is a former staff writer at Entrepreneur.com.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Innovation

4 Ways Market Leaders Use Innovation to Foster Business Growth

Forward-thinkers constantly strive to diversify and streamline their products and services, turning novelties into commodities desired by many.

Business News

JPMorgan Shuts Down Internal Message Board Comments After Employees React to Return-to-Office Mandate

Employees were given the option to leave comments about the RTO mandate with their first and last names on display — and they did not hold back.

Side Hustle

'Hustling Since Middle School': She Started a Side Hustle on Facebook Marketplace — Then a 'Game-Changer' Grew It to $25,000 a Month

Leena Pettigrew's "entrepreneurial spirit" inspired her to build a business with earnings that outpaced her full-time income.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Leadership

From Elite Athletes to Tech Titans — Discover the Surprising $100-Million Habit That Leads to Extraordinary Success

Success comes from mastering focus, eliminating distractions and prioritizing what truly matters.

Business News

'Nothing More Powerful': How to Transform Companies From Within as an 'Intrapreneur,' According to a Microsoft Office and Yahoo! Shopping Cofounder

Elizabeth Funk wrote the first code for Yahoo! Shopping on her own, based on skills she acquired from an "HTML for Dummies" book.