Transformational Development of Speed-Reading Technology: Tools, Machines and Software Applications

Abstract

This conceptual paper aims to concentrate on the transformational development of tools, machines, and software applications used to increase the speed of reading. There has been a need for modernization of the old-fashioned machines in the field of speed reading. Several practical steps have already been taken in the last three decades of the twentieth century, and several outdated speed-reading tools and various equipment types have already been replaced by quite a few speed-reading software programs and mobile applications. The earliest speed-reading tools are reading pacing machines, which work on various simple to advanced technological principles. Different types of machines are also used for tracking the movements of eyes in the form of saccades and fixations during reading. Subsequently, several speed-increasing software tools use the powerful text processing technique called the Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP). Many of these tools have demonstrated significant productivity gains in the reading speed of learners. However, this transformational development has resulted in a multiplicity of speed-increasing function-specific software applications, there remains a need to choose the right combination of them, considering the diversity among learners and their goals. Though the distance covered in this journey of transformational development of tools, machines and software applications is quite encouraging, there is still room for improvements in terms of making the process of speed reading closer to natural reading.