A tactile iPhone reading sanctuary combining curated classical literature, local-first SwiftData persistence, and fluid 120Hz gesture physics.
Carta transforms how people read classic literature on mobile. Instead of infinite scrolling feeds or complex e-reader UIs, Carta delivers curated poetry and philosophy passages through an elegant, tactile card deck with ambient background audio.
Building a truly distraction-free reader required balancing low-latency gesture physics, offline catalog persistence, and seamless background audio playback without hitching 120Hz display refresh rates or relying on cloud network latency.
Engineered with a local-first philosophy using SwiftData model containers, custom drag velocity math in SwiftUI, and non-blocking AVAudioSession background audio loops. Zero tracking, zero ads, and instant sub-frame responsiveness.
Shipped to the Apple App Store as a complete, native iOS product. Features a fully offline catalog, custom distraction-free reading typography, ambient soundscapes, and a CoreGraphics high-resolution quote card export studio.
Carta operates with 100% local persistence. The application seeds a pre-compiled SQLite relational database through a custom SwiftData model container on first launch.
User favorites, reading history, and custom collections maintain indexed relationships. All queries execute on-device in under a single frame without network latency, user accounts, or third-party tracking.
The signature card-swipe interaction is powered by custom SwiftUI drag gestures tracking translation deltas, instantaneous velocity, and angular rotation transforms.
Dynamic release thresholds determine whether to snap the card back to center or dismiss it off-screen using damped spring physics. View rendering trees were profiled in Xcode Instruments to eliminate main-thread layout thrashing and maintain 120Hz animation fluidity.
Ambient soundscapes (rain, hearth, nocturnal breeze) are managed via a dedicated audio coordinator configuring AVAudioSession with ambient mixing categories.
The system observes NotificationCenter events for audio route changes (e.g. AirPods disconnect) and system interruptions (incoming phone calls, alarms), smoothly fading playback volume and resuming state without audio clipping or memory leaks.
I’m a Computer Science student at California State University, Long Beach. My focus is building robust, high-performance software, whether that involves low-level systems programming in C++, structuring relational schemas, or engineering refined iOS applications in Swift.
Designing, developing, and shipping Carta to the Apple App Store taught me the practical realities of production delivery: data modeling with SwiftData, memory and frame hitch profiling in Xcode Instruments, StoreKit 2 in-app purchases, and navigating Apple’s review guidelines.
I’m actively seeking software engineering internship opportunities where I can contribute to thoughtful client products or distributed systems.