My AI skeptic friends are all nuts (fly.io)

Hi HN, University lectures are long, dense, and fast-paced. Like many students, I used to record them thinking I’d revisit them later — but that never really worked. Even transcripts felt like raw logs.

So I built [Notorium](https://www.notorium.app) — an AI assistant that records live lectures and automatically turns them into structured notes, flowcharts, and mind maps— within minutes after class.

What it does: - Record lectures inside the app (in-person, live) - Transcribe using Whisper - Send the full transcript to LLM - Use a custom system prompt to: - Summarize the lecture - Break it into topics - Generate visual aids: flowcharts and mind maps

Extras: - Download notes as clean PDFs - Tap Simplify to make notes more digestible - Tap Expand to deepen explanations - Tag notes by subject (e.g., Physics, CS) for filtering and fast retrieval

Built for - In-person learners - Visual learners (flowcharts, concept trees, diagrams) - Students who want control — skim when you're tired, expand when you're focused

Coming soon: A spaced-repetition-based flashcard mode — so you can actively review and retain the key points from your lectures.

Tech Stack: - Transcription: Whisper - LLM: Open source model via Groq - Frontend: Next.js + Tailwind + shadcn/ui - Backend: Firebase

Why Groq?: Speed and consistency. Fast enough to generate full notes right after class ends.

Would love your feedback: - What other visual formats or study modes would help?

Thanks! – Pranav

Comments (14)

ByteAtATime · 1d ago

One of the reasons people take notes is that you’re processing the information while taking the notes. This is removing that important step, and I would argue it means these notes are less effective than manually taking them in the first place

pranav_harshan · 1d ago

I absolutely agree, taking notes yourself is a key part of learning. This isn’t trying to replace that. It’s more of a backup for when lectures are long, fast-paced, or you just can’t stay fully engaged the whole time.

The idea is to support the process — help with review, fill in gaps, and make it easier to revisit and actually use what was said in class.

arbus5672 · 1d ago

Maybe run this through one of the open university lectures available on YouTube and show what the results it produces look like?

This should give a clear idea of the quality of the output and an easy way to see before buying.

We have internal technical presentations at my company and this could be useful for those as well, not just for university students

pranav_harshan · 1d ago

Yeah I will be soon adding a sample results in the home page along with an onboarding screen. As you said it will help the user get an clear idea about the product.

Also you can try out the product for free when you signup. Can we connect so I could get few insights from your use case.

arbus5672 · 1d ago

Sure, happy to reach out if you add your email address here or on your profile

pranav_harshan · 1d ago

Here it is, looking forward to connect pranav.harshan.ai@gmail.com

sfc32 · 1d ago

Is it possible to see an example without signing up?

pranav_harshan · 1d ago

Working on that! I’ll drop a sample notes, mind map + the original transcript on the homepage soon so you can preview before signing up.

Thanks for the response

seany62 · 2d ago

Great idea! Will it highlight parts where the professor says something like "this is important and will be on the exam...". All of the information on the exam (which dictates the majority of your score in the class at most US universities) must be conveyed to the student one way or the other (worksheets, lectures. etc.). A cool runoff would be an "AI Exam Prep" which guessed what would be on the exam, based on previous exams and where the info came from

pranav_harshan · 2d ago

Great point! Right now it doesn’t flag “this will be on the exam” moments, but I’ve been thinking about it. Since we have the full transcript, detecting key phrases like that is definitely possible.

Flashcards are on the way too — and tying them to “likely exam content” would be super useful. Appreciate the idea!

dansoto · 1d ago

To take this further, allowing the user to define hot items or subjects might be better. For example, history tests often ask questions about when or where an event happened. Imagine if we could request that we want a list of dates and associated events.

pranav_harshan · 1d ago

That makes sense, will consider this. Thanks for the feedback

dansoto · 1d ago

This looks nifty. There is some confusion regarding the "Pro" plan.

* 20 hours of recording time

Is that 20 total hours for the month or one transcribing session?

pranav_harshan · 1d ago

Ah yeah, should’ve been clearer — it’s 20 hours per month on the Pro plan. I’ll clean that up on the site.

Thanks for catching it.