Danish designer Bjørn Karmann has created a camera that produces unique “photos” with the help of artificial intelligence. Instead of using optics, the camera, named Paragraphica, collects GPS and weather data to generate a description of the current location and surroundings. This description then becomes the prompt for the text-image generator Stable Diffusion, which creates an image that appears on the camera’s screen.
The camera, which is a mini-PC in a 3D-printed housing, features three adjustment wheels that control the radius around the location, the level of focus, and how closely the AI algorithms should adhere to the description. Although the resulting images may not always resemble reality, they capture the mood and emotions of the location in an eerie way, according to Karmann.
Paragraphica is not intended to replace traditional photography but rather show how AI interprets the physical world. Karmann has also developed a browser version of the camera for people to try out.
