Created by Jasper van Loenen, the Black Box Camera interprets the subject you want to capture in your photo and uses artificial intelligence to generate a unique physical print based on its own interpretation of that subject.

The device has an analog viewfinder to find your subject, and a single button to take the photo; everything else is handled by the internal system. Using machine learning the photo you took is analyzed and a caption is created, which in turn is used to generate a ‘photo’. This final image is presented to the user as a physical photo print, straight from the camera.

Machine learning models creating images from textual prompts have sprouted many ‘prompt masters’; people who know exactly how to create prompts that nudge the system in the right direction. The Black Box Camera takes a different approach by removing the tweaking and changing, and only allowing the user a single input: the subject the camera is pointed towards.

After pressing the button, the entire internal process is (as the name of the device suggests) hidden from the user until the final result emerges: a physical photo print with the generated image.

Internally the Black Box Camera uses a Raspberry Pi with camera module to take a photo when the user pressed the button. This photo is then analyzed and a caption is generated, which is used as the input prompt for Dall-e. The resulting image then gets printed by the internal Instax portable photo printer, for which the bluetooth protocol was reverse engineered to control it from custom software.

Project Page | Jasper van Loenen

See /?s=camera for more ‘camera’ related projects on CAN

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Perpetual Beta [encounters in open space] – Exhibition & Weekly Events

From June 4th to July 4th, The Grey Space embarks on a large-scale experiment entitled Perpetual Beta. In close collaboration with a group of makers and the public, a new form of presentation is explored based on the principles of open source. The result is an exhibition of work-in-progress, where the public is invited to take a look, participate and contribute.

Blind Camera – Point-and-shoot sound to image

Blind Camera is an AI powered device that generates pictures from sound instead of light while preserving the experience of using a point-and-shoot camera.

BOSOZOKU – DUB-Russell x Yasuyuki Yoshida

Created by DUB-Russell (Music) and Yasuyuki Yoshida (Visuals) and produced BRDG Tokyo, BOSOZOKU is music video that combines beats and grains of sound texture created with Max/MSP and cut and paste generative video assemblage using TouchDesigner.

Printshop with Processing – Preparing algorithmic content for offset print

Tutorial on how to output algorithmically created graphical ornaments or representations of data in Processing to multiple page documents, ready for offset print with process (CMYK) and spot colors.

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Linger – Device to create and broadcast a virtual crowd

Created by Jasper van Loenen, Linger is a small, portable device that allows you to create and blend into a virtual crowd by storing the specific WiFi signals from everyone that comes near you, and rebroadcasting their signals infinitely when they leave, making it seem as if they are still there.