RocketReader

2005 Consensus Software Awards

Product Description

RocketReader® is reading proficiency software.  It teaches people how to read faster and improve their comprehension.

The software enables people to read faster by transforming poor reading habits into fluid “block reading” techniques.  It employs an original method called “word group training” to teach people to read blocks of words rather than word by word. RocketReader® uses artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to identify the appropriate level of challenge for each user and adjust it for optimal learning.  The technology innovatively combines these unique processes with existing methods for teaching speed reading, such as rapid text presentation and speed training.

RocketReader® solves the three major habits that stop people from reading well.  The first is “sub vocalization” (saying words under your breath), the second is “slaving” over text (doing unnecessary work) and the third is “skip back” (flipping back over or rereading words).  By breaking these habits, RocketReader® enables users to reach reading speeds of up to 500 words per minute or beyond and enter the realm of the fast reader.

To ensure that improved comprehension occurs alongside increased reading efficiency the software has comprehension testing for all in built readings and also enables users to create their own comprehension tests.

RocketReader® has wide application and can be used by adults and children aged over six.  The software is available as a download or on CD and in easy to install multi-user editions for use by schools, universities and corporations.

The ability to read efficiently is a critical skill and reading ability has a profound impact on educational outcomes, confidence and success in the workplace and in life. RocketReader® improves learning outcomes for students and enables adults to be more efficient and productive by improving fundamental skills.

Reference Web Site:  www.RocketReader.com

Free 14 day trial:  www.RocketReader.com/download/RocketReaderDownload.html

Innovation

The company believes that it was the first to offer a software solution for reading proficiency.   Other innovative aspects of RocketReader® are the word group training exercise, the readability grade analysis tool and the AI driven operation.   The readability grade analysis tool provides a more comprehensive analysis of text than other grading tools and readers can easily choose texts of appropriate difficulty or grade level.

RocketReader® is technically unique as it employs smart algorithms to ensure that users are challenged and training effectively to eliminate poor reading habits.

Creative Windoware owns the domain “speedreading.com”, positioning RocketReader® as the definitive reading proficiency solution and helping prevent competitors from reaching the online market.  The company employs extensive search engine optimization using software designed in house to ensure its sites are consistently highly placed for reading proficiency related queries in major search engines.  The RocketReader® site is in the top 1% of the all websites for web traffic and is currently ranked number 1 for the searches  “reading software” and "speed reading" on Google.

RocketReader® Gold is a premium product, distinguished from its competitors by smart AI driven operation, better features and ample original content.  The practice readings database has over 400 texts, all with comprehension testing, including basic and advanced texts.  Feedback from the Technology School of the Future saw the introduction of 60 new junior readings and 40 texts designed to get young boys reading.  Support for Specific Learning disabilities includes fonts, spacing and colour schemes. RocketReader® is flexible, allowing people to practice at their own pace and time, whilst surfing the net and on their own material.  (RocketReader® works with existing MS-Office, pdf and html documents).  The software’s high level of effectiveness, interactivity and positive reinforcement mean people enjoy using the product and make progress within a short period of time.

Customers can install the Gold Edition on their home and work computers and laptop.  This offers more flexibility than the more traditional single user licence structure and enables a whole family to use the product.  The Gold Edition includes twelve months subscriptions to live web updates.  For customer convenience, updates are automatically detected and downloaded over the web onto the customer’s copy of RocketReader®.

The world of the slow reader and the world of the fast reader are two separate worlds. RocketReader® helps people of all ages to break poor reading habits and graduate to the world of fast and accurate reading.

RocketReader® is eagerly accepted by an international audience, with over 95% of web sales from outside Australia, and the US accounting for three quarters of export sales. The company’s target markets are the burgeoning elearning and internet markets and the product has potential to become a leading educational product in the USA given that the company has a proven business model, traction on the web and expanding sales.

Performance

RocketReader® is designed to ensure that users learn at optimal levels and incorporates a number of accepted methods to improve reading techniques.  It is effective at improving reading performance, has thousands of users and many satisfied clients, http://www.RocketReader.com/say/say.html.

RocketReader® was conceived and developed by Dr Simon Ronald, who has a track record of creating award winning software products that satisfy the demands of the marketplace. Simon is an expert on AI. His PhD was in AI, and he has written numerous research papers on that topic. RocketReader® is developed in C++ using an object-oriented architecture.   Simon is an advocate of Lakos “large scale software engineering” methodologies and has utilized many techniques to reduce inter-module coupling and realize a good physical design.  RocketReader® adheres to coding standards as well as physical performance standards.  It makes extensive use of the industry standard “software template libraries (STL)”.  All algorithms are implemented using the STLs.  The database that powers RocketReader® is implemented seamlessly using the flyweight SQLlite relational database library.  This library is an excellent choice for consumer products as it has a small runtime and shipping binary footprint and provides spartan and rapid functionality.  The software is methodically tested with New Mega Bounds checker, ensuring that problematic run time corruption is detected early and that quality releases are shipped.    RocketReader® has a rigorous test suite, which is executed  on multiple windows platforms using VMWare.  This ensures that RocketReader® is ready on all platforms at release.

The download version is highly compressed to enable quick transmission.  Customers, who have tried the free 14 day trial download and wish to purchase the software, do not need to download the software again.  The trial is converted into the full version of the software simply by entering the unique registration string provided to the customer.   CD delivery is outsourced to a specialist CD fulfilment company in the USA to enable fast delivery to the company’s largest client base. 

The company has a two tiered client support module.  General support requirements are resolved by the internal Technical Support and Testing staff, and for the rare issues requiring further input, escalation occurs directly to the product developer.

Customers are also supported through the RocketReader® portal, which was designed in-house to provide greater support to clients.  The portal allows customers to order on-line, view their account details and provides specialized information (regular newsletters with information on reading and related topics and information about special offers) to clients.

Potential

RocketReader® is supported by Austrade through the New Exporters Development Program.

The software has pop up texts in five languages (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) and enables people to practice on their own material in other languages.  There are opportunities for content developers, partners or investors to co-develop reading proficiency software in other languages in conjunction with RocketReader®.

The company designed its own customer portal to allow for growth.  The portal provides multi-currency shopping cart facilities, provides detailed sales reports, operational analysis and specialized information to customers depending on their profile, automates the buying process online, manages client subscriptions and mail outs to customers, controls software security through an original licence string handshaking method, communicates with the order fulfilment company; allows customers to view their account details and has a powerful administration mode to control details of pricing, product and special offers.   The company portal has an extensive data model including over 50 tables, is powered by MySQL, and coded in C++ using an object-oriented methodology.  It is hosted on a dedicated Linux server in Texas.  With this portal that automates many aspects of RocketReader®’s operation, the company is structured for expansion with streamlined customer support, delivery and administration systems.

Based on past sales and market attitude and size, RocketReader® has identified the USA as the primary market with the educational segment a key target within that market.  RocketReader® is in use in schools and colleges in the USA.  In California alone there are 8,900 school districts.  Overall, the education market is 10% of US GDP (USD $600B).  Market trends include increasing student enrolment, expansion of the charter school system and a growing demand for online educational products.  Ancillary markets are Australia, the UK and Canada. The company is currently finalising arrangements for an Australia wide distribution agreement.

In December 2004 RocketReader® was awarded 'Member of the month' by the popular educational site “The Educational Software Cooperative” and in November 2004 third prize in the e-learning category of the national Secrets of Australian IT competition.  RocketReader® also recently received a 5 star rating from popular internet site download3000.com.

To further establish the products benefits, RocketReader® is participating in an independent trial of its software facilitated by Assistant Professor Plowman of the School of Education at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York.  That trial involves use of the software in institutional and special education settings.  A trial of 500 users at Hyre Middle School in Ohio is scheduled to commence in February 2005.

  Figure 1 - the RocketReader® web sites record over 1.7 million hits/month

Other information the judges should know

Key individuals
Dr Simon Ronald is the CEO of RocketReader®. He has a Ph.D in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of South Australia and a Bachelor of Engineering in Digital Systems and Computer Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.  The publisher of over 20 articles in the area of computational learning algorithms in artificial intelligence (evolutionary and genetic algorithms), he is also co-author of two patents.

Dr. Ronald believes strongly in reading well because of his own personal experiences in education and the workplace. “Reading and knowledge are the two most important factors to success”, he says. Dr Ronald has analysed numerous reading and speed reading programs, books, CDs and tutorials. He understands the problems which hold people back from becoming skilled readers, having discussed these problems with many RocketReader® users.

Dr Ronald was a co-founder of the Maxamine group of companies (www.maxamine.com), an international software group with offices in the USA, UK and Australia. He brings to RocketReader® extensive industry experience in software engineering and I.T. as a team leader, project engineer, software architect, AI consultant and entrepreneur.

His eye for innovation is recognized. In 2003 he was awarded the prestigious SA Pearcey Award for “Innovation and pioneering achievements and contribution to research and development in Information Technology.”  In 1981 he received an Australian Young Inventor Award and appeared on the ABC’s “The Inventors” program.

Mr. Bill Cooper is VP of Sales. Bill has over 20 years experience in sales. His skills are in the area of developing key business relationships, sale marketing, account management and customer service. He has experience in developing key relationships in the educational sector through his work with Dynix and an extensive knowledge of computing.

IP protection
RocketReader® is a registered trademark in the USA and Australia.  The software is protected by Armadillo Software Protection Systems, which aggressively limits reverse engineering attempts or tampering with the built-in licensing and security measures.  The product employs encrypted licence strings with server based licence authentication, enabling the software to report fraud and licence violations back to a central server.

Alternate websites
The website www.speedreading.com is a feeder site, directing traffic to the RocketReader® site and generating sales.  The site http://www.free-online-books.org/ was developed by RocketReader® and is a massive free community repository of public domain books with advanced searching, public commenting, and bookmark management.  This site is branded with the RocketReader® name and is used to sell the RocketReader® e-book classic collection and to cross sell to RocketReader®. The Gold Edition of RocketReader® is also available with the RocketReader® eBook classic collection (over 5,000 ebooks) as RocketReader® Platinum.

Other products
Corporate seminars on time management/speed reading have been highly successful. As well as locally in Adelaide, large financial companies in the US and Kuwait have seen the benefits of RocketReader's seminar presentation. The average seminar attendee improves reading speed by 68% and comprehension by 41%.

Testimonials
Note: many more testimonials can be found at URL http://www.RocketReader.com/say/say.html

I purchased RocketReader for my son when he was 11 years old, in the fifth grade. He truly enjoyed the stories in your program. He read all of the children's stories at least once, many of them over and over, and he loved watching the speed start out at 100 wmp and increase over and over without him realizing it.

His achievement reading scores rose from the 70th percentile to the 87th percentile. Being over the 85th percentile in reading on the Metropolitan Achievement Test allowed my son to enter the gifted classes in the South Carolina schools. We didn't know until he had reached it that his reading scores were the only area holding him back. I think that your program is wonderful.

(L Grubb, SC USA)

I initially didn't believe that I could improve so quickly in such a short time. I'm amazed.

( R Holt, SA Australia. )

TAFE RECOGNISES EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF LOCAL SOFTWARE

Because a significant proportion of students moving into entry levels of tertiary education relate study difficulties to poor reading skills, Noarlunga TAFE Vocational Preparation staff have explored a number of e-learning tools which would provide an educational program responsive to individual learning needs and offering a wide range of interactive activities with a focus on critical reading strategies.

"We discovered RocketReader after searching the internet and were impressed by its many features.  And then to find that it was a South Australian company, was a bonus", said Valda Davey, a coordinator and lecturer in the program.

"We expect that students in our 2005 programs will embrace RocketReader as an innovative  way to improve reading comprehension, increase reading speed but most importantly to engage in reading which in turn will benefit their future study."

(V Davey, SA Australia)

I received RocketReader as a gift from my husband in October of last year. It is one of the most helpful gifts I have ever received. I am a pre-vet student, who works two part-time jobs. I have a large amount of reading to do for school and very little time in which to do it. I needed to increase my reading speed in order to keep up. RocketReader is helping me to do just that when I began using RocketReader, my reading speed was consistently about 100-110 words per minute. Now, I am consistently reading at 180-190 wpm. Just that small increase has made a big difference. What makes this increase all the more impressive is that I have only had the time to use RocketReader once every 2-3 weeks.

(V Latham, VA USA)

The RocketReader reading program has probably doubled my reading speed. That is still not saying much because I was a very slow reader to start with even though I have a B.A. and M.S. university degree and worked more than 35 years in public education. I think I have always been kind of a "lazy reader" not concentrating or pushing myself to read more quickly. As a result I would get bored, fall asleep or just avoid reading preferring to watch TV. or do something else.

The RocketReader forces me to focus my attention and push myself to read faster. As a result I have been reading more and I don't view reading as such a burden. I feel good that at the rip old age of 63 I have been able to continue to increase my reading skills and continue learning. Thank you very much for your program.

(R Dermody)

I am still surprised at the quick results. Two months just does not seem a long enough to speed up my reading by three times especially considering the material I read is college level. After the first month of use, one hour every day, my reading speed went from 232 wpm to 480 wpm. I hope the result is not atypical; everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy reading more in less time.

I recently took up college classes again this fall, and the study time required per class has dropped by almost half. The time I am saving is worth ten times the amount I paid for the program. I now have more time for clubs, volunteering, and the like.

(J Riendaeu, Madison WI USA)

I have noticed a substantial difference in both my reading and information retention with the use of RocketReader. Thank you for a great product.

(William Weiss, North Carolina, USA)

Your program is by far the most effective program I have ever used for increasing speed and comprehension.

(E Waishan, Wisconsin USA)

Your program is one of the most useful things that I have ever found using the internet. RocketReader has easily doubled my reading speed, and tripled my comprehension. It is by far one of the best programs that I have purchased for myself. Thanks.

(D Bialek, California USA)

I have more than tripled my reading speed, all thanks to RocketReader! I love it.

(M Smith, New Providence Bahamas)

content copyright © RocketReader Pty Ltd
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Figure 3 - Logging on

Figure 4 - Simple choices - based on time available

Figure 5 - Choosing an exercise - ‘a la carte’ selection

Figure 6 - Flash training - trains to read in ‘chunks’

Figure 7 - Word grouping - trains to locate word groups

Figure 8 - Speed Training - develop your reading speed

Figure 9 - Readability level

Figure 10 - Support for Specific Learning Disabilities

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