AURA - Adaptive Universal Reading Assistant

AURA is a browser extension that lets you navigate, read, and interact with any website using simple voice commands, making the web more accessible for everyone.

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Inspiration

We kept hearing from blind/low-vision readers, neurodivergent learners, and folks with limited mobility that traditional screen readers feel rigid. They wanted a calmer “tell me what’s important” companion that also understands plain voice commands. That feedback pushed us to combine AI summaries with conversational controls wrapped in a soothing UI that mirrors the AURA logo.

What it does

  • Extracts the main article on any page and either reads it verbatim or sends it through an AI summary mode (if you provide an API key).
  • Injects an overlay with live status plus Pause / Resume / Stop controls.
  • Accepts hands-free commands for playback (“pause”), navigation (“scroll down 30%”, “go right”), zoom (“zoom in 15%”), and opening sites—even unknown ones via AI URL resolution.
  • Offers a polished popup/settings experience with saved speech rate/pitch/voice and AI config.

How we built it

  • Chrome extension (Manifest V3) using vanilla JS, HTML, CSS, and shared theme tokens (src/common/theme.css).
  • contentScript orchestrates the DOM analyzer, overlay, and pageReader (Web Speech API).
  • The service worker relays commands, stores settings via chrome.storage, and optionally proxies AI calls through a Node/Express server.
  • Voice commands run inside the popup using SpeechRecognition; they map transcripts to structured commands before messaging the active tab.

Challenges we ran into

  • Chrome auto-closes the popup when it loses focus, so keeping voice recognition alive required UX guidance and sparks future architectural work.
  • Designing a glassmorphic look without sacrificing accessibility: contrast, dark mode, reduced motion, and focus indicators needed special care.
  • Safely interpreting “open <site>” phrases: we had to combine whitelist matching, AI resolution, and sanitized search fallbacks to avoid misnavigation.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • A cohesive brand experience—gradient typography, feature cards, overlay, popup, and settings all feel like one product.
  • Comprehensive voice UX: scroll/zoom/site commands in addition to media control, all with status feedback.
  • AI features reuse the same configuration flow for summaries and smart navigation, making advanced capabilities approachable.

What we learned

  • Voice-first UX lives or dies on transparency; documenting limitations (e.g., popup focus) builds trust until deeper fixes ship.
  • Accessibility guidelines can coexist with modern aesthetics if tokenized and enforced centrally.
  • Extension teams benefit from server stubs (our Express proxy) to iterate on AI features without exposing keys during demos.

What's next for AURA - Adaptive Universal Reading Assistant

  • Move voice listening outside the popup (service worker or content-side recognizer) so commands keep working while users browse.
  • “Social assist” snippets plus tone controls to help users participate in communities more comfortably.
  • Richer personalization (e.g., favorite voices per mode, multilingual summaries) and exporting transcripts for note-taking.

Built With

  • chrome.runtime
  • chrome.storage
  • chrome.tabs
  • css
  • css.-web-apis:-speechsynthesis-and-speechrecognition.-chrome-apis:-chrome.action
  • express.js
  • html
  • javascript
  • node.js
  • openai
  • speechrecognition)-chrome-apis-(chrome.action
  • using-javascript
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