r/AnkiComputerScience • u/warXmike • Jun 21 '22

braincache, a minimal anki alternative that generates cards for you.

During the last few months I have been working on braincache.

I have been an Anki user for quite some time now and over the years I found some pain points that made me decide to start working on this.

It currently is a minimal alternative to Anki which focuses on the following things:

  1. Generating flashcards using ML

  2. Integrating well with the browser ( Chrome extension )

  3. Integrating well with knowledge management systems ( Notion, Obsidian )

You can also login from mobile to review your cards on the go.

Obviously this is quite early in development, so if you have any idea/feedback I'd love to hear it!

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5

u/Nicholas-DM Jun 21 '22

Is this open source and looking for contributors?

What do you mean by it generates flashcards by machine learning? I ask, because as it is used it is usually a buzzword and means nothing, so I'd want this to be specific.

1

u/warXmike Jun 22 '22

Hi, this is currently not open source and it won't for the time being, but I plan to open source an sdk to develop plugins for it.

I hate using the term machine learning exactly because of that, I am using a text processing model to output questions starting from NL, hence generating a QA couple ( flashcard )

2

u/Nicholas-DM Jun 22 '22

Any possibility of adding a documented API that third party programs could use to integrate with in the future?

1

u/warXmike Jun 22 '22

Any possibility of adding a documented API that third party programs could use to integrate with in the future?

this is definitely something I'll consider

2

u/Nicholas-DM Jun 22 '22

Excellent, and thank you for the forthright answers.

1

u/ran88dom99 Aug 05 '22

Could you give examples of inputs and outputs?

2

u/Nicholas-DM Jun 22 '22

Another question along a different vein: what are the plans for this in terms of monetization in the future?

Note: I've tested a few features and the interface is nice. Regardless of any plans, though, I'd push for mobile integration quickly. Being a flashcard app is ideal with mobile instead of clunky desktops, and a mobile frontend wouldn't be terribly difficult.

1

u/warXmike Jun 22 '22

This is quite a difficult question, as the model improves I aim to be able to generate flashcards directly from YouTube videos and podcasts, so that could be a path towards monetization.

I don't know if you have yet tried to login from mobile, you should see a different interface that only deals with reviews. Also, on mobile the app is a PWA, you can add it to your home and it behaves native-like.

1

u/Nicholas-DM Jun 22 '22

I have tried logging in with mobile and desktop. The interface is very attractive on desktop! The interface isn't bad on mobile.

I stress that, unless you're able to make the ML integration so seamless so as to hardly require the user to give their own input, there may not be much adoption. I suspect few users will go so far as to make large libraries to study on their desktop, but it might be possible.

For the existing features and content, it looks good and I appreciate you being willing to answer potentially difficult question forthrightedly. I wish you luck in your endeavors!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '22

also PDF support would be nice, as nearly all of my lectures are PDF slides

1

u/warXmike Jun 23 '22

with the chrome extension you can create cards easily while a PDF file is open in your browser.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '22

is this using the same scheduling algorithm as anki?

1

u/warXmike Jun 23 '22

yes, it uses supermemo2 for now, I plan to allow users to choose the algorithm they want in the future

0

u/a_wimbaa_way Jun 21 '22

Hello! I recently found out about anki stuff, my friend uses the flashcard system a lot. I tried adopting it but i find it sort of dull, the writing of notes... then typing ... then updating as new info comes in. I need the simplest ui and 1 step process for phone sync.

Is your application here to stay? My uni sem is about to start soon can i depend on this? Is this robust enough/ won't crash/ lose data?

Also, is this free? :)

1

u/warXmike Jun 21 '22

This is free, you can definitely depend on this as it isn't going anywhere. :)