Title: Ghost in the Machine: a haunted web page that talks back
What I Built
A haunted web page where you chat with a ghost trapped inside the machine. You type or speak a question, and the ghost answers in two or three short, eerie sentences, then reads the answer out loud in a deep, ancient voice. I took the theme literally: a ghost living inside the code.
Code
https://github.com/marijaneloum005-create/fantome-
How I Built It
- Brain: Gemma 4 (Google's open-weight model, 31B instruction-tuned), called through the Google AI Studio API, with a system prompt that defines the ghost's personality.
- Voice: ElevenLabs text-to-speech, using a voice I created with Voice Design.
- Backend: a small Node.js and Express server that keeps all API keys on the server (the browser never sees them) and limits requests.
- Frontend: plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with browser speech recognition for voice input.
- Hosting: Render (free web service), deployed from GitHub. The hardest part was keeping the API keys secret while connecting three services.
Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
Gemma's open weights mean I am not locked into one closed API: I can swap the model, or later run the same ghost fully offline on my own machine. It also let me build and test for free as a bachelor's student.
Prize Categories
- Best Use of Render
- Best Use of Gemma
- Best Use of ElevenLabs
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