Is it possible to select the word that is being read while using the SpeechSynthesisUtterance API?

Question

Is it possible to select the word that is being read while using the SpeechSynthesisUtterance API?

Is there an event I can use to get the current s

Answer 1

There was a related question that wrote out the words out to a span and I've extended that answer here to select the words as they are spoken.

var utterance = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance();
utterance.lang = 'en-UK';
utterance.rate = 1;

document.getElementById('playButton').onclick = function(){
    var text = document.getElementById('textarea').value;
    // create the utterance on play in case user called stop
    // reference https://stackoverflow.com/a/47276578/441016
    utterance = new SpeechSynthesisUtterance();
    utterance.onboundary = onboundaryHandler;
    utterance.text = text;
    speechSynthesis.speak(utterance);
};

document.getElementById('pauseButton').onclick = function(){
    if (speechSynthesis) {
      speechSynthesis.pause();
    }
};

document.getElementById('resumeButton').onclick = function(){
    if (speechSynthesis) {
      speechSynthesis.resume();
    }
};

document.getElementById('stopButton').onclick = function(){
    if (speechSynthesis) {
      speechSynthesis.cancel();
    }
};

function onboundaryHandler(event){
    var textarea = document.getElementById('textarea');
    var value = textarea.value;
    var index = event.charIndex;
    var word = getWordAt(value, index);
    var anchorPosition = getWordStart(value, index);
    var activePosition = anchorPosition + word.length;
    
    textarea.focus();
    
    if (textarea.setSelectionRange) {
       textarea.setSelectionRange(anchorPosition, activePosition);
    }
    else {
       var range = textarea.createTextRange();
       range.collapse(true);
       range.moveEnd('character', activePosition);
       range.moveStart('character', anchorPosition);
       range.select();
    }
};

// Get the word of a string given the string and index
function getWordAt(str, pos) {
    // Perform type conversions.
    str = String(str);
    pos = Number(pos) >>> 0;

    // Search for the word's beginning and end.
    var left = str.slice(0, pos + 1).search(/\S+$/),
        right = str.slice(pos).search(/\s/);

    // The last word in the string is a special case.
    if (right < 0) {
        return str.slice(left);
    }
    
    // Return the word, using the located bounds to extract it from the string.
    return str.slice(left, right + pos);
}

// Get the position of the beginning of the word
function getWordStart(str, pos) {
    str = String(str);
    pos = Number(pos) >>> 0;

    // Search for the word's beginning
    var start = str.slice(0, pos + 1).search(/\S+$/);
    return start;
}

Science Literacy is a way of approaching the world. It's a way of equipping yourself to interpret what happens in front of you. It's methods and tools that enable it to act as a kind of a utility belt necessary for what you encounter in the moment. It's methods of mathematical analysis, interpretation, some basic laws of physics so when someone says I have these two crystals and if you rub them together you get healthy. Rather than just discount it, because that's as lazy as accepting it, what you should do is inquire. 

So do you know how to inquire? Every scientist would know how to start that conversation. Where did you get these? What does it cure? How does it work? How much does it cost? Can you demonstrate? Science literacy is vaccine against charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance of the forces of nature. Become scientifically literate.

MDN SpeechSynthesis
MDN SpeechSynthesisEvent
MDN Boundary