Here’s a picture of Bjørn Karmann holding a camera. Except, that camera does not have a lens. It does not have sensors. There is no LiDAR or scanners of any type.

Yet, Bjørn is using it to capture photos.

How?

“Paragraphica is a context-to-image camera that uses location data and artificial intelligence to visualize a ‘photo’ of a specific place and moment.”

So, how?

When someone presses the camera’s trigger, Paragraphica collects data about its exact location utilizing the address, weather, time of day, and nearby places. It then taps into Google Maps’ Street View and, as Yanko Design describes it, “runs an Image-to-Image AI model and generate a new, whimsical photograph from scratch.”

As the return of Kodak FunSaver’s and cassette tapes continue to prove, nostalgia will keep AI at bay until real life can become stranger than fiction again.