Handsfree for Web

A Google Chrome extension to browse the web via voice commands

Javier Perez

June 27, 2019

A litle about me

Javier Perez

Argentina

Frontend software engineer

A web accessibility problem

Almost all websites on the internet present their content in a visual format and make the user interact through manual devices.

Who is affected by these restrictions?

The idea

When browsing the web, everything that can be done using a keyboard or mouse could be done just by talking to a computer.

Existent hands-free tools

:: Few hands-free tools are web-specific

:: They bring a limited set of supported actions

:: They require to buy a commercial license

:: They are not easy to install and require some training

:: They require expensive hardware to work properly

The solution

Handsfree for Web

A Google Chrome extension that lets the user browse the web just by invoking voice commands.

:: Web specific
:: Free
:: Lightway and easy to install
:: User customized
:: Multilanguage

The implementation

How does it work?

Speech recognition service
:: Web Speech API

The implementation

What actions do people do within the browser?

Browser actions

Generic website

actions

Custom website

actions

53 actions

89 actions

 ∞

actions

Everything that can be done using a keyboard or mouse could be done just by talking to a computer.

Voice commands support

Voice commands and contexts

Custom website actions support

Custom voice commands

Website voice commands

Voice command contexts

root

global

help, exit

media

click, select, scroll down, scroll up, new tab, open, search, zoom in, zoom out, auto scroll, find text, ...

play, stop, pause, mute, rewind, forward, fullscreen, volume up, volume down, ...

auto scroll

faster, slower, stop

* , previous, next

find text

...

Conclusions

Handsfree for web provides new ways of accessing web content.

Web interaction through voice commands seeks to overcome the barrier caused by the required manual interaction.

handsfreeforweb.com

Handsfree for Web

Available in Chrome Store