My Audiobook Reader is a cross-platform mobile application built with React Native and Expo that allows users to listen to their local text files as audiobooks. The application includes a scalable backend processing pipeline on Google Cloud that handles file uploads and generates high-quality, emotionally-toned audio from text.
The project is designed with a clear separation of concerns, ensuring a clean and maintainable codebase for both the frontend and the backend.
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File Selection: Users can upload a local .txt file directly from their device.
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Text-to-Speech (TTS): The app reads the content of a .txt file aloud using the native device's Text-to-Speech capabilities.
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Audio Controls: Play, pause, and stop controls for a seamless listening experience.
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Scalable Backend: An event-driven backend pipeline built on Google Cloud Functions and Storage.
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Automated Processing: Automatically generates audio from uploaded .txt files.
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Emotional Tone Analysis: Processes text to determine its emotional tone (positive, negative, neutral) and includes this metadata with the generated audio.
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Clean UI: A simple and intuitive user interface built with Tailwind CSS for React Native.
Frontend (Client)
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React Native: The core framework for building the mobile application.
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Expo: The platform for building, deploying, and running the React Native app.
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Expo Router: Used for file-system-based navigation.
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Tailwind CSS: For fast and responsive styling.
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expo-document-picker: For selecting files from the device.
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expo-file-system: For reading and handling local files.
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expo-speech: For the core Text-to-Speech functionality.
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Backend (Cloud)
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Google Cloud Functions: The serverless compute service that runs the processing logic.
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Google Cloud Storage: Used for storing raw text files and processed audio files.
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Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API: Generates high-quality, natural-sounding audio from text.
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Node.js: The runtime environment for the Cloud Functions.
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sentiment: A lightweight npm package for basic text sentiment analysis.
my-audiobook-reader/
├── app/
│ ├── (tabs)/
│ │ └── reader/
│ │ └── index.tsx # The main reader screen component
│ └── _layout.tsx
├── backend/
│ ├── package.json
│ └── index.js # The backend Cloud Functions
├── app.json
├── package.json
└── README.md
- Prerequisites Node.js (LTS version)
npm
Expo CLI (npm install -g expo-cli)
Google Cloud SDK (gcloud) configured with a project.
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/your-username/my-audiobook-reader.git
cd my-audiobook-reader
Install the dependencies:
npm install
Run the app:
npx expo start
Scan the QR code with the Expo Go app on your mobile device.
Navigate to the backend/ directory:
cd backend
Install backend dependencies:
npm install
Create a Google Cloud Storage bucket for your files:
gsutil mb -p [YOUR_PROJECT_ID] gs://my-audiobook-reader-files
File Upload Function:
gcloud functions deploy uploadBook --runtime=nodejs20 --trigger-http --allow-unauthenticated
Processing Function:
gcloud functions deploy processBook --runtime=nodejs20 --trigger-bucket=my-audiobook-reader-files
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Open the app in Expo Go.
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Tap the upload icon (cloud with an arrow) to select a .txt file from your device.
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The text will appear on the screen.
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Tap the play button to start listening to the text as a synthesized audiobook.
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PDF Text Extraction: Implement a solution for extracting text from PDFs to be used with the TTS function. This will likely involve a separate backend service that uses a robust library.
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User Authentication: Add user login to store user-specific books and audio files securely.
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Progress Tracking: Save the user's reading progress and bookmarks.
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Advanced NLP: Integrate with a more sophisticated NLP model to capture more nuanced emotional tones and speaking styles.
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UI/UX Improvements: Refine the user interface with more professional controls and animations.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE.md file for details.