Pudding

Pudding makes the web readable for everyone- an AI extension that adapts any webpage in real-time for people with dyslexia, ADHD, and cognitive reading challenges, 100% offline and private.

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🥣 Pudding – AI Cognitive Accessibility Engine

💡 Inspiration

Reading online should be simple. For millions of people, it isn't.

  • 8.4 million people with dyslexia see words jumble and lines blur.
  • 6.4 million people with ADHD lose focus in dense paragraphs before finishing a single article.
  • 4+ billion non-English speakers face the added challenge of understanding complex content in a second language.

I've seen this firsthand. Friends avoid reading the news because it's exhausting. Classmates reread the same paragraph multiple times. Family members give up on understanding medical or legal information because the language is too dense.

Existing tools don't solve the real problem.

  • Text-to-speech feels robotic.
  • Font changers only scratch the surface.
  • Cloud summarizers compromise privacy.
  • None of them learn how you read.
  • None of them truly adapt.

That's the gap Pudding fills.

🚀 What It Does

Pudding is a Chrome browser extension and Cognitive Adaptation Engine that uses on-device AI to transform any webpage into content tailored to your reading style, in your preferred language, without sending any data off your device.

✨ Core Features

🧠 Adaptive AI Simplification

  • Uses Chrome's built-in Gemini Nano completely offline
  • Converts dense paragraphs into concise bullet points
  • Replaces jargon with plain language while preserving meaning
  • Three simplification levels:
    • Low
    • Mid
    • High

📈 Cognitive Behavior Tracking

  • Monitors scroll speed, pauses, and rereads locally
  • Builds a personalized reading profile over time
  • Automatically adjusts simplification based on fatigue signals
  • Learns and improves with continued use

🎯 Complexity Mapping

  • Real-time readability heatmap (Green → Yellow → Red)
  • Click difficult sections to simplify only those paragraphs
  • Visual guidance showing exactly where reading becomes challenging

🎯 Focus Mode

  • Blurs distractions such as ads, comments, and sidebars
  • Highlights only the current paragraph
  • Supports keyboard navigation using arrow keys
  • Designed specifically for ADHD reading patterns

🌍 10-Language Support

Supports:

  • English
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Arabic
  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Hindi
  • Portuguese
  • Bengali

Additional features:

  • Full RTL support for Arabic
  • Instant language switching
  • Persistent language preferences
  • Potential reach of more than 5 billion users

🏗️ How We Built It

User reads webpage
        ↓
Cognitive Tracker monitors behavior (local)
        ↓
Complexity Analyzer scores each paragraph
        ↓
Gemini Nano (on-device) simplifies content
        ↓
Content Restructurer transforms the DOM
        ↓
Focus Mode + Reading Beam guide attention

Tech Stack

  • Chrome Manifest V3
  • Chrome Prompt API (Gemini Nano)
  • cognitive-tracker.js
  • complexity-analyzer.js
  • content-restructurer.js
  • fatigue-detector.js
  • i18n-helper.js
  • OpenDyslexic font (bundled locally)

⚙️ Challenges We Faced

Gemini Nano Availability

Chrome's on-device AI currently requires Canary or Dev builds with experimental flags.

To ensure compatibility, we implemented a complete fallback simplification pipeline so the extension remains fully functional even without Gemini Nano.

Real-Time Performance

Continuous reading behavior tracking initially introduced performance issues.

Optimizations included:

  • 300ms debouncing
  • Throttled tracker updates
  • Cached complexity scores

Result: approximately 60% lower CPU usage.

Multilingual Simplification

Simplification quality differs across languages.

To improve consistency, we created:

  • Language-specific prompting
  • Conservative fallback strategies for lower-resource languages

Privacy vs Capability

Most AI reading assistants upload webpage content to external servers.

Pudding keeps everything local:

  • Gemini Nano runs on-device
  • Reading profiles remain in localStorage
  • No external APIs
  • No cloud processing
  • Zero data leaves the device

📚 What We Learned

  • Cognitive load is often invisible until reading becomes easier.
  • Accessibility tools should adapt to people—not force people to adapt.
  • Powerful AI experiences can be built without sacrificing privacy.
  • Features designed for accessibility often improve everyone's experience.

🏆 Accomplishments

  • Fully working Chrome extension
  • Offline AI-powered content simplification
  • Behavioral reading adaptation
  • Support for 10 languages
  • RTL support for Arabic
  • 100% private architecture
  • OpenDyslexic font integration
  • WCAG AA compliant color contrast

🔮 What's Next

  • Voice narration with synchronized highlighting
  • Study Mode with AI-generated flashcards
  • Classroom Mode for educators
  • Native iOS and Android applications
  • Firefox and Safari support

🌍 Impact

SDG 4 — Quality Education

Students with dyslexia and ADHD can independently access educational content.

SDG 10 — Reduced Inequalities

Improves digital inclusion for people with cognitive disabilities and multilingual audiences.

SDG 3 — Good Health and Well-Being

Reduces reading fatigue and cognitive stress during everyday web browsing.

▶️ Try It

GitHub

https://github.com/Tasfia-17/Puddingext

git clone https://github.com/Tasfia-17/Puddingext.git

Load the extension in:

chrome://extensions

Enable Developer Mode and choose Load unpacked.

🙏 Acknowledgments

  • Youth Code Foundation for creating a platform where students build meaningful projects
  • Chrome AI Team for Gemini Nano
  • OpenDyslexic community for the accessibility font
  • Everyone who shared their experiences with dyslexia, ADHD, and online reading

🏁 Submission Information

Track: Track 03 — AI That Actually Helps People

License: MIT

Status: Working Prototype

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