Inspiration
The inspiration for ViziVoice came from the need to make web content more accessible and engaging for users who may have visual impairments or prefer auditory learning. While there are existing text-to-speech tools, they usually have several issues, a big one being images, especially ones without alt text.
What it does
ViziVoice works just like a regular TTS program, but when it comes to images, we look to see if there is already alt text, and if not, a request is made to the ai to generate a desc. for the image which is then sent back as an audio file.
How we built it
We built ViziVoice as a Chrome extension using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the frontend. For the speech functionality, we used Google TTS. We also used the intel developer cloud to code the AI we used for generating alt text.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenge was navigating the restrictions posed by Chrome’s security policies. Ultimately, this is the one thing we weren't able to get around.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud of the work we put in, we have a working backend, as well as 2 different forms of front end (extension and website).
What we learned
This project gave us valuable insights into working with browser extensions, handling API integrations, and building accessible web tools. We learned a lot about dealing with browser policies and creating efficient, user-friendly solutions. Moreover, it strengthened our understanding of managing project challenges like API rate limits and cross-origin requests.
What's next for ViziVoice
Next, we aim to: -Find how to work around the security policies
- Add more advanced customization options, such as regional accents or emotional tones for voices.
- Expand the extension to support more browsers, like Firefox and Safari.
- Explore deeper integration with productivity tools, allowing users to save and organize spoken content for later.
- Potentially develop an offline version where users can download audio content for when they’re without internet access.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.