Dap

A musical toy that turns photographs into playable music.

Overview

Dap is a native iPhone app published on the App Store. It turns visual information from a photograph into musical material that can be played, remixed, and explored in a Jam.

My role

I led Product Design, UI/UX, interaction design, and implementation. I built Dap in SwiftUI using a specification-driven, AI-assisted development workflow, with agent orchestration supporting implementation, debugging, and review. Product direction, visual design, musical behavior, and final decisions remained my responsibility.

How it works

Photo → Music → Jam

Dap analyzes the visual characteristics of each photograph and maps them to musical material. Color → note is the bridge: relationships between the chromatic circle and the circle of fifths shape the mapping. The result is a playable sequence that can be explored and remixed in a Jam.

Jam

In a Jam, the result stays interactive after the initial generation. Photographs can become Bass, Harmony, or Melody, while the Vibe Pad lets the user explore how those parts work together.

Photo Inspector

The Photo Inspector keeps each photograph’s visual context and musical identity connected. Labels, contextual information, VoiceOver support, and interactions that do not rely on color alone help make color-dependent features understandable.

Built as a real product

SwiftUI powers the interface, while AVAudioEngine handles audio playback, sequencing, and the Jam runtime. Dap also uses Foundation Models for optional on-device generation of photo names and descriptions, while keeping the underlying photo-to-music system deterministic.

App Intents connect Dap to Siri and Shortcuts, including actions for opening Capture and starting a new Jam. The product work also covered persistence, photo permissions, accessibility, export, and testing on physical devices.

App Store

Download Dap on the App Store.