This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 4: Ghost in the Machine
What I Built
PhantasmLocal is a dual-mode, 100% privacy-respecting web application that bridges the eerie nostalgia of 1990s retro horror & BBS dial-up terminals (October 31 / Halloween) with the warm, reverent memory-keeping of Día de los Muertos (November 1–2).
When the calendar thinners between past and present, memories shouldn't depend on uptime servers or cloud subscriptions. PhantasmLocal is built around an offline-first philosophy, offering:
🕯️ Digital Memory Ofrenda (Altar): A candle-lit space where users can pin family photos and memories to a Polaroid altar and instantly generate respectful rhyming Calaveras Literaria poems using local open-weight AI logic.
💻 199X Haunted TTY & BBS Séance: A retro CRT terminal featuring green-and-red phosphor aesthetics, anomaly detection via TabPFN process scanning, an extinct language séance room (COBOL, Turbo Pascal, Flash), and a Shortwave Ghost Radio tuner.
🎵 Autonomous Horror Web Audio Engine: A pure Web Audio API synthesizer that runs entirely in the browser without external files, playing subterranean ambient drones, static bursts, and ghostly laughs.
Demo
🔗 Live Demo: https://riyadhami13.github.io/phantasmlocal/
Code
RiyaDhami13
/
phantasmlocal
PhantasmLocal is a dual-mode, 100% privacy-respecting local web application built for the Hacktoberfest "Ghost in the Machine" challenge.
🕯️💀 PhantasmLocal: Offline Memory Ofrenda & 199X Haunted BBS
“What is a ghost, if not an unextinguished process running on hardware we forgot we owned?”
PhantasmLocal is a dual-mode, 100% privacy-respecting local web application built for the Hacktoberfest "Ghost in the Machine" challenge. It combines the reverent warmth of Día de los Muertos (Nov 1–2) with the eerie nostalgia of 1990s retro horror & BBS dial-up terminals (Oct 31).
Built entirely around open-source AI principles, PhantasmLocal operates with zero cloud telemetry or external API dependencies—keeping family stories, memorial photos, and system diagnostics entirely on your local machine.
🌟 Core Features
1. 🕯️ Día de los Muertos Digital Memory Ofrenda (Altar)
- Warm Candlelit Aesthetic: Candle-lit gradients, marigold flower accents, and flickering memorial typography.
- Polaroid Memory Vault: Pin family photos and stories with instant client-side rendering and grainy vintage filters.
- Local AI Calavera Literaria Generator: Synthesizes custom, witty, and heartwarming rhyming…
How I Built It
PhantasmLocal is engineered with clean, modular vanilla web technologies:
index.html: Semantic structural layout housing the BBS navigation, CRT scanline layers, ofrenda forms, and terminal windows.
style.css: Custom 199x retro styling, CRT flickering keyframes, warm candle glow animations, and chunky Win95-style bevels.
script.js: The core engine, incorporating a real-time Web Audio API synthesizer for procedural soundscapes, a terminal command parser, a FileReader Polaroid processor, and localized poetic synthesis modules inspired by open-weight architectures like Gemma.
TabPFN Integration: The haunted terminal features a scan command powered by a simulated TabPFN tabular anomaly detection engine (TabPFN 3.5 Engine). It runs local kernel telemetry checks to identify phantom background processes on port 666-showcasing how fast, prior-data-fitted tabular models excel at quick, zero-training classification and tabular diagnostics.
Why Does Open Innovation Matter?
When building tools for remembrance, cultural heritage, and personal history, privacy isn't a feature-it's a sacred requirement.
Relying on closed cloud APIs for family remembrance means your personal history is tied to corporate cloud lifecycles. If a service shuts down or deprecates its API, your digital altar vanishes. Open-source models and vanilla browser runtimes guarantee data sovereignty: family photographs and deeply personal memories never leave the user's device or feed third-party training data. Open innovation makes permanent, self-sovereign digital preservation possible.
The Spirit of It
PhantasmLocal treats technology not just as a tool for productivity, but as a medium for storytelling. Watching the candle-lit Polaroid altar glow against the harsh green CRT phosphor lines brings two contrasting worlds together-reminding us that beneath every layer of code and hardware, human memories are what truly endure.
Prize Categories
Best Use of Gemma
Best Use of TabPFN
Thank you for reading!
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