Ahrise | Devpost

Our extension combines customizability and ease of use
Progress tracking allows for gamification of wellness
The user can access information about resources and additional exercises on our website
Use Ahrise, save your eyes!

Background

Most of us have had eye strain when working, especially over long stretches of time. While it's possible to remember to take breaks or set rudimentary timers, we wanted it to be possible to take breaks that suit our workflow and make it easy for us to exercise, as well as requiring no effort in the foreground. The effectiveness of eye exercises on reducing eye strain and even eye conditions like Myopia is clear.

Welcome to Ahrise!

Ahrise is a Chrome Web Extension that automatically calculates the best time for you to take a break from your screen. We integrate wellness resources like eye exercises directly into the user experience, making it seamless to transition from working to active exercise.

How we built it

Everything is centred on the Chrome Extension API, which allows for everything from system calls, data use, and user interactivity. To be lightweight, we used vanilla Javascript to handle the backend logic, while modern HTML and CSS powered what the user sees.

Challenges we ran into

Chrome Extensions usually work their magic in one of two ways: inject Javascript into the webpage, or run processes in the background. Since our application does the latter (which is less common), it sometimes led to unexpected or difficult-to-resolve issues. As well, Chrome recently migrated to Manifest V3, so resources and approaches based on V2 weren't always up to date.

What we accomplished, and what we learned

We set out to make an extension that improves our work and our health, and we came out with a product that can change someone's whole approach to digital work. We learned about the science of eye health, the intricacies of user wants & needs, and how a modern web extension fits into all of it.

What's next for Ahrise?

We had an ambitious plan, as we really envisioned using this ourselves. We focus on problems, not solutions, and the problem of personal wellness in an age of device-based work is everchanging. A few directions include:

Utilizing the camera during exercise time to guide and evaluate the user's eye exercises, as well as other factors like if they have a darkly lit room (which can be bad for eye strain as well). AR can be incredibly helpful for physical learners.
Using more of Chrome's APIs to track more aspects of the user's work (though never storing that information unless beta testing) in order to deliver better-timed breaks and even suggest site-specific wellness tips. For example, drinking lots of water if talking in zoom calls a lot.
A mobile version, though it will be much more customizable as many mobile apps are designed to be used without interruption, like Maps and Phone.
Use CockroachDB or GraphQL on the backend to store usage history in order to better calculate wellness scores.