What I Built

"There are three deaths in this world:

The first is when our body ceases to breathe.

The second is when they lower us into the earth.

And the third, the true and final death, is when no one speaks our name again."

— Traditional Mexican Adage

Between the twilight of Halloween on October 31 and the sacred dawn of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 1 and 2, ancient folklore tells us that the veil separating the living from the departed wears thin. Across Mexico and throughout homes worldwide, families assemble ofrendas—multi-tiered altars illuminated by flickering candlelight (velas), draped in golden marigolds (cempasúchil), and adorned with favorite foods, portraits, and memories of those who have crossed over.

For the "Ghost in the Machine" challenge, I built Ofrenda Viva ("Living Offering"): an interactive, audio-visual digital memorial sanctuary and local AI spirit oracle. It allows anyone to pay homage to the legendary computing pioneers whose ideas literally live inside our hardware and software, or build an air-gapped memorial altar for their own departed family members, mentors, and beloved pets.

Core Features:

🏛️ The Three-Tiered Altar (Los Tres Niveles): Authentically structured into El Cielo (The Celestial Realm with the centerpiece portrait shrine), La Tierra (Earthly Life with handcrafted Sugar Skulls and Pan de Muerto), and El Inframundo (Purification with salt, spring water, and smoldering copal incense).

🕯️ Interactive Candlelit Rituals: Light 6 dedicated veladoras (candles) with custom procedural sound synthesis—each illuminating the altar with warm realistic radial glows.

💾 "The Ghosts in Our Machines": Dedicated altars for computing pioneers—Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, and Dennis Ritchie—whose open innovations laid the foundations of modern computing.

🕊️ Custom Ancestor & Pet Memorials: Add your own ancestors, grandparents, departed mentors, or family pets with complete offline privacy and photo storage.

📜 "Espíritu" — In-Browser Local AI Oracle: An open-source AI engine that synthesizes Epitafios Eternos (poetic eulogies), Calaveritas Literarias (traditional rhyming octosyllabic Mexican folk verses), Cartas al Más Allá (two-way séance letters), and Guías de Ofrenda (ritual offering recommendations) with real-time typewriter streaming.

🎸 Pure Procedural Web Audio Soundscape: Zero audio MP3 downloads—synthesizes Spanish classical guitar arpeggios, Tibetan singing bowl harmonic chimes, and fire crackling using mathematical oscillators in the native Web Audio API.

🏵️ 60 FPS Marigold & Copal Canvas Engine: A high-performance physics particle engine simulating drifting golden cempasúchil petals, interactive wind mouse deflection, and rising copal smoke wisps.

Demo

🎮 Live Web Application: https://anshumansingh0408-hub.github.io/hbs/ (or clone & run locally via npm run dev)

🎬 Full Walkthrough Video: Included in the repository as ofrenda_viva_demo.mp4 (H.264, 1366x644, 29.7s walkthrough showing altar lighting, pioneer switches, and AI token streaming).

🖥️ Standalone Local Video Player: Open play_demo.html in any browser to watch the demo video with custom playback controls and direct downloads.

Interactive Highlights

Landing Hero & Bento Showcase: Modern baroque aesthetics with glowing typography (Cinzel Decorative & Outfit) and quick preview cards.

Interactive Altar Stage: Click on any of the 6 candles or the copal incense bowl to trigger harmonic chimes, flame animations, and cultural folklore lore panels.

AI Oracle Console: Select a spirit, choose a literary mode, and watch tokens stream into view with rhythmic punctuation cadence.

Code

All code is open-source under the permissive MIT License:

anshumansingh0408-hub / hbs

🏵️ Ofrenda Viva: Digital Sanctuary of Remembrance & Local Open-Source AI Oracle

Ghost in the Machine — Día de los Muertos & Open-Source AI Challenge Submission
A 100% private, air-gapped memorial altar powered by client-side open-weight models, procedural Web Audio synthesis, and real-time marigold petal physics.

🌟 Overview

Ofrenda Viva ("Living Offering") is a digital sanctuary honoring Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and Halloween, built on a fundamental principle: Grief, ancestral memory, and intimate human eulogies belong solely to the individual, never to centralized corporate surveillance clouds.

In traditional Mexican heritage, an ofrenda is a sacred three-tiered altar created to welcome back the souls of loved ones on November 1st and 2nd. The veil between past and present thins, guided by glowing candles (velas), the golden scent of marigolds (cempasúchil), fragrant copal incense, and heartfelt memories.

Ofrenda Viva brings this tradition into the…

View on GitHub

Architecture Overview


mermaid
graph TD
    User([User / Memory Keeper]) --> UI[Sanctuary UI: Tiered Altar & Bento Grid]

    subgraph Client_Sanctuary [100% Local In-Browser Execution]
        UI --> PetalsEngine[Canvas Particle Engine: Cempasúchil Petals & Copal Smoke]
        UI --> WebAudio[Procedural Web Audio API: Spanish Guitar, Chimes & Fire Crackle]
        UI --> AltarState[Altar State Manager: 6 Interactive Candles & Offerings]
        UI --> Storage[(Private LocalStorage: Custom Photos & Memorials)]

        subgraph Open_AI_Core [Espíritu Local AI Engine]
            AltarState --> AIOrchestrator[Folkloric Prompt & Personality Harness]
            Storage --> AIOrchestrator
            AIOrchestrator --> LocalInference[Local Open-Weight Model / Client Pipeline]
            LocalInference --> StreamingPipeline[Token-by-Token Streaming Engine]
        end
    end

    StreamingPipeline --> UI
    style Open_AI_Core fill:#2b1810,stroke:#ffb703,stroke-width:2px;
    style Client_Sanctuary fill:#0d0914,stroke:#7209b7,stroke-width:2px;

DEV Community

🏵️ Ofrenda Viva: Honoring the Ghosts in Our Machines with 100% Local Open-Source AI