An AI “Poetry Camera” is turning images into words. It is essentially reversing the current trend of generating images from textual inputs.
Generative AI now writing haikus to describe imagery
Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) has been evolving rapidly. Internet users have adopted Gen AI and have been using their words to create images and videos. However, a new project has reportedly used Gen AI to reverse the process.
Instead of using Gen AI to turn text prompts into images, videos, or music, a new 3D-printed camera is composing poems based on visual inputs. In other words, instead of generating images, Gen AI is now looking at people, objects, and other visual aspects, and then describing them in the form of haikus or short poems.
今天候机的时候看到一款很特别的“AI 硬件”产品，给我留下了深刻印象。
先介绍一下这款产品，它叫诗歌相机（Poetry Camera），看着和一个拍立得相机并无二致，一切不同发生在用户按下快门之后。
完成拍摄后，相机吐出的不是相纸，而是一张印有一首诗歌的小纸条，就好像拍立得当场洗出了一张照片。#AI pic.twitter.com/ektsYRtuPB— 智见AI (@shadouyoua) May 5, 2024
The “Poetry Camera” prints out a short, and supposedly one-of-a-kind singular poem on thermal paper. It takes the adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words” and uses it to instruct the Gen AI to create a short-form poem sprinkled generously with metaphors.
The creators of the Poetry Camera share monthly updates through their newsletter. They are promising a limited-edition production run of the camera.
There’s no confirmed timeline for the commercial release of Poetry Camera. The creators aren’t even hinting at any price. However, those interested could create one if they wanted.
How does the Poetry Camera use Gen AI to weave poems?
The creators of the Poetry Camera aren’t hiding their technology. They have shared detailed instructions if people are interested in building their own Poetry Camera, and even personalizing it.
At the heart of the Poetry Camera is a Raspberry Pi SBC (Single-Board Computer). Specifically, they are using the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, which is surprising because it does not pack a lot of processing power and RAM.
I’m planning to build this Poetry Camera. It is such a cool idea! Basically, it is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with a camera module that runs @OpenAI‘s GPT-4 model to analyze the photo; it then prints out a poem based off the visual cues. https://t.co/TakMJUdYgb
— Chad Mairn (@cmairn) May 2, 2024
The Pi Zero 2 W is paired with the Pi Camera module 3. As the instructions page indicates, the Poetry Camera creators have relied on open-source software and GPT-4 for the Gen AI base. They have 3D printed the camera body, which also houses a battery pack.
There’s a thermal printer embedded inside the 3D printed housing which resembles the Fujifilm Instax instant camera. This means the Poetry Camera is an inkless “photo” printer that merely needs a roll of paper to print out poems.