DeformTune: A Deformable XAI Music Prototype for Non-Musicians

DeformTune is a prototype research application combining known components (MeasureVAE, deformable interfaces) in a novel interaction paradigm for accessibility. The 0 stars, 2 forks, and paper-only publication indicate this is an early-stage research artifact without production deployment or user adoption. The contribution is primarily in HCI/UX design and interaction model validation (11-person pilot study) rather than algorithmic innovation—MeasureVAE is existing work. The deformable interface is a custom hardware/UX design, not a generalizable software tool. No evidence of reusable library, SDK, or API surface. Defensibility is minimal: (1) research prototype status with no codebase infrastructure, (2) no community traction or ecosystem, (3) easily reimplementable by any lab with access to MeasureVAE + deformable hardware. Frontier risk is low because this solves a niche accessibility problem (music for non-musicians via tangible UI) that frontier labs would not prioritize; if they did, adding a deformable interface layer to their own music models would be trivial. The work has academic value for HCI conferences but lacks the production depth, adoption, or technical moat to be defensible as a platform or tool.