Inside the antique camera is a Raspberry Pi with a camera module behind the lens. The flow of passages is controlled by a single, handwritten JSON file. When there is overlap between the tags detected in an image by Clarifai and the tags assigned to a passage, and the candidate passage occurs next in a storyline that has already begun, that passage is printed out. If no passage can be found, the camera prints poetry enabled by a recursive context-free grammar and constructed from words detected in the image.

This week, I am planning to add a back end component that will allow photos taken to be preserved as albums, and passages printed to be read later online. For now, here is the JSON file that controls the order of output:

{
    "zero": {
        "tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "street"],
        "order": 0,
        "next": ["story"]
    },
    "guam_zero": {
    	"tags": ["computer", "technology", "future", "keyboard", "politics"],
    	"order": 0,
    	"next": ["guam_one"]
    },
    "guam_one": {
    	"tags": ["computer", "technology", "future", "keyboard", "politics"],
    	"order": 1,
    	"next": []
    },
    "dream_zero": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors"],
    	"order": 0,
    	"next": ["chess_board"]
    },
    "chess_board": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors"],
    	"order": 2,
    	"next": ["black_queen", "black_pawn", "black_king", "black_rook", "white_king", "white_knight"]
    },
    "black_queen": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "black", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors", "chess", "game", "queen"],
    	"order": 3,
    	"next": ["wake_up"]
    },
    "black_pawn": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "black", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors", "chess", "game", "pawn"],
    	"order": 3,
    	"next": ["wake_up"]
    },
    "black_king": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "black", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors", "chess", "game", "king"],
    	"order": 3,
    	"next": ["wake_up"]
    },
    "black_rook": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "black", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors", "chess", "game", "rook", "castle"],
    	"order": 3,
    	"next": ["wake_up"]
    },
    "white_king": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "white", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors", "chess", "game", "king"],
    	"order": 3,
    	"next": ["wake_up"]
    },
    "white_knight": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "white", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors", "chess", "game", "knight"],
    	"order": 3,
    	"next": ["wake_up"]
    },
    "wake_up": {
    	"tags": ["dream", "dark", "night", "sleep", "bed", "bedroom", "indoors"],
    	"order": 4,
    	"next": []
    },
    "forget": {
    	"tags": ["man", "men", "boy"],
    	"order": 0,
    	"next": []
    },    
    "story": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "street", "woman", "women", "girl"],
    	"order": 1,
    	"next": ["miss_vest", "forget"]
    },
    "miss_vest": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "street", "woman", "women", "girl"],
    	"order": 2,
    	"next": ["envelope", "forget"]
    },
    "envelope": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "street", "woman", "women", "girl", "paper", "envelope", "mail"],
    	"order": 3,
    	"next": ["apartment", "forget"]
    },
    "apartment": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "street", "woman", "women", "girl", "paper", "envelope", "mail"],
    	"order": 4,
    	"next": ["email"]
    },
    "email": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "woman", "women", "girl", "paper", "envelope", "mail", "computer", "technology"],
    	"order": 5,
    	"next": ["match"]
    },
    "match": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "man", "men", "boy", "paper", "envelope", "mail", "computer", "technology"],
    	"order": 5,
    	"next": ["smithpoint", "morning"]
    },
    "morning": {
    	"tags": ["day", "sun", "bedroom", "bed", "breakfast", "morning", "dream", "dark", "night"],
    	"order": 6,
    	"next": ["call"]
    },
    "call": {
    	"tags": ["phone", "telephone", "technology", "computer"],
    	"order": 7,
    	"next": ["smithpoint"]
    },
    "smithpoint": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "man", "men", "boy", "bar", "drink", "alcohol", "wine", "beer"],
    	"order": 8,
    	"next": ["drive", "forget"]
    },
    "drive": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "man", "men", "boy", "bar", "drink", "alcohol", "wine", "beer"],
    	"order": 9,
    	"next": ["take_pill", "toss_pill"]
    },
    "take_pill": {
    	"tags": ["drug", "pill", "man", "men", "boy", "bar", "night", "drink", "alcohol", "wine", "beer"],
    	"order": 10,
    	"next": ["meet_stranger_drugs", "john_home"]
    },
    "toss_pill": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "girl", "street", "woman", "women"],
    	"order": 10,
    	"next": ["meet_stranger_no_drugs"]
    },
    "meet_stranger_drugs": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "man", "men", "boy", "bar", "drink", "alcohol", "wine", "beer"],
    	"order": 11,
    	"next": ["john_home"]
    },
    "meet_stranger_no_drugs": {
    	"tags": ["moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "man", "men", "boy", "bar", "drink", "alcohol", "wine", "beer"],
    	"order": 11,
    	"next": ["painting"]
    },
    "painting": {
    	"tags": ["painting", "art", "moon", "swamp", "marble", "north america", "insect", "night", "man", "men", "boy", "bar", "drink", "alcohol", "wine", "beer"],
    	"order": 12,
    	"next": []
    },
    "john_home": {
    	"tags": ["drug", "pill", "man", "men", "boy", "bar", "night", "drink", "alcohol", "wine", "beer"],
    	"order": 13,
    	"next": []
    }

}

And here is the code that’s currently running on the Raspberry Pi:

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
from Adafruit_Thermal import *
import time
import os
import sys
import json
import picamera
from clarifai.client import ClarifaiApi
from pattern.en import referenced

import gen

# Init Clarifai
os.environ["CLARIFAI_APP_ID"] = "nAT8dW6B0Oc5qA6JQfFcdIEr-CajukVSOZ6u_IsN"
os.environ["CLARIFAI_APP_SECRET"] = "BnETdY6wtp8DmXIWCBZf8nE4XNPtlHMdtK0ISNJQ"
clarifai_api = ClarifaiApi() # Assumes Env Vars Set

# Init System Paths
APP_PATH = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
IMG_PATH = os.path.join(APP_PATH, 'img')
TALE_PATH = os.path.join(APP_PATH, 'tales')

# Init tale_dict
with open(os.path.join(APP_PATH, 'tales_dict.json'), 'r') as infile:
    tale_dict = json.load(infile)

# Seen tales
seen_tales = list()

# Init Camera
camera = picamera.PiCamera()

# Init Printer
printer = Adafruit_Thermal("/dev/ttyAMA0", 9600, timeout=5)
printer.boldOn()

# Init GPIO
# With camera pointed forward...
# LEFT:  11 (button), 15 (led)
# RIGHT: 13 (button), 16 (led)
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)
ledPins = (15,16)
butPins = (11,13)

for pinNo in ledPins:
    GPIO.setup(pinNo, GPIO.OUT)

for pinNo in butPins:
    GPIO.setup(pinNo, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)

# Open Grammar Dict
with open(os.path.join(APP_PATH, 'weird_grammar.json'), 'r') as infile:
    grammar_dict = json.load(infile)

def blink_left_right(count):
    ledLeft, ledRight = ledPins
    for _ in range(count):
        GPIO.output(ledRight, False)
        GPIO.output(ledLeft, True)
        time.sleep(0.2)
        GPIO.output(ledRight, True)
        GPIO.output(ledLeft, False)
        time.sleep(0.2)
    GPIO.output(ledRight, False)

def to_lines(sentences):
    def sentence_to_lines(text):
        LL = 32
        tokens = text.split(' ')
        lines = list()
        curLine = list()
        charCount = 0
        for t in tokens:
            charCount += (len(t)+1)
            if charCount > LL:
                lines.append(' '.join(curLine))
                curLine = [t]
                charCount = len(t)+1
            else:
                curLine.append(t)
        lines.append(' '.join(curLine))
        return '\n'.join(lines)
    sentence_lines = map(sentence_to_lines, sentences)
    return '\n\n'.join(sentence_lines)

def open_tale(tale_name):
    with open(os.path.join(TALE_PATH, tale_name), 'r') as infile:
        tale_text = to_lines(
            filter(lambda x: x.strip(), infile.read().strip().split('\n'))
        )
    return tale_text

def pick_tale(tags, next_tales):
    choice = str()
    record = 0
    for tale in tale_dict:
        if tale in next_tales or tale_dict[tale]['order'] == 0:
            score = len(set(tale_dict[tale]['tags']) & set(tags))
            if tale in next_tales and score > 0 and not tale in seen_tales:
                score += 100
            if score > record:
                choice = tale
                record = score
    return choice


blink_left_right(5)
imgCount = 1
cur_tale = str()


while True:
    inputLeft, inputRight = map(GPIO.input, butPins)
    if inputLeft != inputRight:
        try:
            img_fn = str(int(time.time()*100))+'.jpg'
            img_fp = os.path.join(IMG_PATH, img_fn)

            camera.capture(img_fp)

            blink_left_right(3)

            result = clarifai_api.tag_images(open(img_fp))
            tags = result['results'][0]['result']['tag']['classes']

            if cur_tale:
                next_tales = tale_dict[cur_tale]['next']
            else:
                next_tales = list()

            tale_name = pick_tale(tags, next_tales)
            cur_tale = tale_name

            if tale_name:
                lines_to_print = open_tale(tale_name)
                seen_tales.append(tale_name)

            else:
                grammar_dict["N"].extend(tags)

                if not inputLeft:
                    sentences = [gen.make_polar(grammar_dict, 10, sent=0) for _ in range(10)]
                elif not inputRight:
                    sentences = [gen.make_polar(grammar_dict, 10) for _ in range(10)]
                else:
                    sentences = gen.main(grammar_dict, 10)

                lines_to_print = to_lines(sentences)

            prefix = '\n\n\nNo. %i\n\n'%imgCount

            printer.println(prefix+lines_to_print+'\n\n\n')

            grammar_dict["N"] = list()
            imgCount += 1
        except:
            blink_left_right(15)
            print sys.exc_info()

    elif (not inputLeft) and (not inputRight):
        offCounter = 0
        for _ in range(100):
            inputLeft, inputRight = map(GPIO.input, butPins)
            if (not inputLeft) and (not inputRight):
                time.sleep(0.1)
                offCounter += 1
                if offCounter > 50:
                    os.system('sudo shutdown -h now')
            else:
                break

Click here for a Google Drive folder with all the passages from the novel.

This week, I’ve been exhibiting my ongoing project, word.camera, at IDFA DocLab in Amsterdam. My installation consists of four cameras:

1. The original word.camera physical prototype:
2. The sound camera physical prototype:
3. A new word.camera model that uses a context-free grammar to generate poems based on the images it captures:
4. A talking, pan-tilt-zoom surveillance camera that looks for faces in the hallway and then describes them aloud. (See also: this Motherboard video)
   
   
   

During the exhibition, I was also invited to deliver two lectures. Here are my slides from the first lecture:

Click here for my lecture slides

And here’s a video of the second one:

Visitors are able to reserve the portable cameras for half hour blocks by leaving their ID at the volunteer kiosk. I have really enjoyed watching people borrow and use my cameras.

I started by adding a shutter button to the top of the enclosure. I used a Cherry MX Blue mechanical keyboard switch that I had leftover from a project last year.

The battery and Raspberry Pi just barely fit into the enclosure:

The Raspberry Pi camera module is wedged snugly beneath the camera’s front plate:

In additional to playing the song, I added some functionality that provides a bit of context to the user. Using the pico2wave text-to-speech utility, the camera speaks the tags aloud before playing the song. Additionally, using SoX, the camera plays an initialization tone generated from the color histogram of the image before reading the tags.

Here’s the code that’s currently running on the Raspberry Pi:

from __future__ import unicode_literals

import os
import json
import uuid
import time
from random import choice as rc
from random import sample as rs
import re
import subprocess

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import picamera
from clarifai.client import ClarifaiApi
import requests
from PIL import Image

import sys
import threading

import spotify

import genius_token

# SPOTIFY STUFF

# Assuming a spotify_appkey.key in the current dir
session = spotify.Session()

# Process events in the background
loop = spotify.EventLoop(session)
loop.start()

# Connect an audio sink
audio = spotify.AlsaSink(session)

# Events for coordination
logged_in = threading.Event()
logged_out = threading.Event()
end_of_track = threading.Event()

logged_out.set()


def on_connection_state_updated(session):
    if session.connection.state is spotify.ConnectionState.LOGGED_IN:
        logged_in.set()
        logged_out.clear()
    elif session.connection.state is spotify.ConnectionState.LOGGED_OUT:
        logged_in.clear()
        logged_out.set()


def on_end_of_track(self):
    end_of_track.set()

# Register event listeners
session.on(
    spotify.SessionEvent.CONNECTION_STATE_UPDATED, on_connection_state_updated)
session.on(spotify.SessionEvent.END_OF_TRACK, on_end_of_track)

# Assuming a previous login with remember_me=True and a proper logout
# session.relogin()
# session.login(genius_token.spotify_un, genius_token.spotify_pwd, remember_me=True)

# logged_in.wait()

# CAMERA STUFF

# Init Camera
camera = picamera.PiCamera()

# Init GPIO
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

# Button Pin
GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)

IMGPATH = '/home/pi/soundcamera/img/'

clarifai_api = ClarifaiApi()

def chunks(l, n):
    """Yield successive n-sized chunks from l."""
    for i in xrange(0, len(l), n):
        yield l[i:i+n]

def take_photo():
    fn = str(int(time.time()))+'.jpg' # TODO: Change to timestamp hash
    fp = IMGPATH+fn
    camera.capture(fp)
    return fp

def chunks(l, n):
    """Yield successive n-sized chunks from l."""
    for i in xrange(0, len(l), n):
        yield l[i:i+n]

def get_tags(fp):
    fileObj = open(fp)
    result = clarifai_api.tag_images(fileObj)
    resultObj = result['results'][0]
    tags = resultObj['result']['tag']['classes']
    return tags

def genius_search(tags):
    access_token = genius_token.token
    payload = {
        'q': ' '.join(tags),
        'access_token': access_token
    }
    endpt = 'http://api.genius.com/search'
    response = requests.get(endpt, params=payload)
    results = response.json()
    hits = results['response']['hits']
    
    artists_titles = []
    
    for h in hits:
        hit_result = h['result']
        if hit_result['url'].endswith('lyrics'):
            artists_titles.append(
                (hit_result['primary_artist']['name'], hit_result['title'])
            )
    
    return artists_titles

def spotify_search(query):
    endpt = "https://api.spotify.com/v1/search"
    payload = {
        'q': query,
        'type': 'track'
    }
    response = requests.get(endpt, params=payload)
    result = response.json()
    result_zero = result['tracks']['items'][0]
    
    return result_zero['uri']

def main(fn):
    tags = get_tags(fn)
    for tag_chunk in chunks(tags,3):
        artists_titles = genius_search(tag_chunk)
        for artist, title in artists_titles:
            try:
                result_uri = spotify_search(artist+' '+title)
            except IndexError:
                pass
            else:
                print tag_chunk
                byline = "%s by %s" % (title, artist)
                print byline
                to_read = ', '.join(tag_chunk) + ". " + byline
                return to_read, result_uri

def play_uri(track_uri):
    # Play a track
    # audio = spotify.AlsaSink(session)
    session.login(genius_token.spotify_un, genius_token.spotify_pwd, remember_me=True)
    logged_in.wait()
    track = session.get_track(track_uri).load()
    session.player.load(track)
    session.player.play()


def stop_track():
    session.player.play(False)
    session.player.unload()
    session.logout()
    logged_out.wait()
    audio._close()

def talk(msg):
    proc = subprocess.Popen(
        ['bash', '/home/pi/soundcamera/play_text.sh', msg]
    )
    proc.communicate()

def play_tone(freqs):
    freq1, freq2 = freqs
    proc = subprocess.Popen(
        ['play', '-n', 'synth', '0.25', 'saw', "%i-%i" % (freq1, freq2)]
    )
    proc.communicate()

def histo_tone(fp):
    im = Image.open(fp)
    hist = im.histogram()
    vals = map(sum, chunks(hist, 64)) # list of 12 values
    print vals
    map(play_tone, chunks(vals,2))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    input_state = True
    new_state = True
    hold_counter = 0
    while 1:
        input_state = GPIO.input(18)
        if not (input_state and new_state):
            talk("capturing")

            # Hold for 15 seconds to turn off
            while not GPIO.input(18):
                time.sleep(0.1)
                hold_counter += 1
                if hold_counter > 150:
                    os.system('shutdown now -h')
                    sys.exit()

            # Reset hold counter
            hold_counter = 0

            # Else take photo
            try:
                img_fp = take_photo()
                msg, uri = main(img_fp)
                histo_tone(img_fp)
                talk(msg)
                play_uri(uri)
            except:
                print sys.exc_info()

            # Wait for playback to complete or Ctrl+C
            try:
                while not end_of_track.wait(0.1):
                    # If new photo, play new song
                    new_state = GPIO.input(18)
                    if not new_state:
                        stop_track()
                        # time.sleep(2)
                        break
            except KeyboardInterrupt:
                pass

The front-end JavaScript code is available on GitHub. Here is the primary back-end Python code:

import os
import json
import uuid
from base64 import decodestring
import time
from random import choice as rc
from random import sample as rs
import re

import PIL
from PIL import Image
import requests
import exifread

from flask import Flask, request, abort, jsonify
from flask.ext.cors import CORS
from werkzeug import secure_filename

from clarifai.client import ClarifaiApi

app = Flask(__name__)
CORS(app)

app.config['UPLOAD_FOLDER'] = '/var/www/SoundCamera/SoundCamera/static/img'
IMGPATH = '/var/www/SoundCamera/SoundCamera/static/img/'

clarifai_api = ClarifaiApi()

@app.route("/")
def index():
    return "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

@app.route("/img", methods=["POST"])
def img():
	request.get_data()
	if request.method == "POST":
		f = request.files['file']
		if f:
			filename = secure_filename(f.filename)
			f.save(os.path.join(app.config['UPLOAD_FOLDER'], filename))
			new_filename = resize_image(filename)
			return jsonify(uri=main(new_filename))
		else:
			abort(501)

@app.route("/b64", methods=["POST"])
def base64():
	if request.method == "POST":
		fstring = request.form['base64str']
		filename = str(uuid.uuid4())+'.jpg'
		file_obj = open(IMGPATH+filename, 'w')
		file_obj.write(fstring.decode('base64'))
		file_obj.close()
		return jsonify(uri=main(filename))

@app.route("/url")
def url():
	img_url = request.args.get('url')
	response = requests.get(img_url, stream=True)
	orig_filename = img_url.split('/')[-1]
	if response.status_code == 200:
		with open(IMGPATH+orig_filename, 'wb') as f:
			for chunk in response.iter_content(1024):
				f.write(chunk)
		new_filename = resize_image(orig_filename)
		return jsonify(uri=main(new_filename))
	else:
		abort(500)


# def allowed_img_file(filename):
#     return '.' in filename and \
# 		filename.rsplit('.', 1)[1].lower() in set(['.jpg', '.jpeg', '.png'])

def resize_image(fn):
    longedge = 640
    orientDict = {
        1: (0, 1),
        2: (0, PIL.Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT),
        3: (-180, 1),
        4: (0, PIL.Image.FLIP_TOP_BOTTOM),
        5: (-90, PIL.Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT),
        6: (-90, 1),
        7: (90, PIL.Image.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT),
        8: (90, 1)
    }

    imgOriList = []
    try:
        f = open(IMGPATH+fn, "rb")
        exifTags = exifread.process_file(f, details=False, stop_tag='Image Orientation')
        if 'Image Orientation' in exifTags:
            imgOriList.extend(exifTags['Image Orientation'].values)
    except:
        pass

    img = Image.open(IMGPATH+fn)
    w, h = img.size
    newName = str(uuid.uuid4())+'.jpeg'
    if w >= h:
        wpercent = (longedge/float(w))
        hsize = int((float(h)*float(wpercent)))
        img = img.resize((longedge,hsize), PIL.Image.ANTIALIAS)
    else:
        hpercent = (longedge/float(h))
        wsize = int((float(w)*float(hpercent)))
        img = img.resize((wsize,longedge), PIL.Image.ANTIALIAS)

    for val in imgOriList:
        if val in orientDict:
            deg, flip = orientDict[val]
            img = img.rotate(deg)
            if flip != 1:
                img = img.transpose(flip)

    img.save(IMGPATH+newName, format='JPEG')
    os.remove(IMGPATH+fn)
    
    return newName

def chunks(l, n):
    """Yield successive n-sized chunks from l."""
    for i in xrange(0, len(l), n):
        yield l[i:i+n]

def get_tags(fp):
    fileObj = open(fp)
    result = clarifai_api.tag_images(fileObj)
    resultObj = result['results'][0]
    tags = resultObj['result']['tag']['classes']
    return tags

def genius_search(tags):
    access_token = 'd2IuV9fGKzYEWVnzmLVtFnm-EYvBQKR8Uh3I1cfZOdr8j-BGVTPThDES532dym5a'
    payload = {
        'q': ' '.join(tags),
        'access_token': access_token
    }
    endpt = 'http://api.genius.com/search'
    response = requests.get(endpt, params=payload)
    results = response.json()
    hits = results['response']['hits']
    
    artists_titles = []
    
    for h in hits:
        hit_result = h['result']
        if hit_result['url'].endswith('lyrics'):
            artists_titles.append(
                (hit_result['primary_artist']['name'], hit_result['title'])
            )
    
    return artists_titles

def spotify_search(query):
    endpt = "https://api.spotify.com/v1/search"
    payload = {
        'q': query,
        'type': 'track'
    }
    response = requests.get(endpt, params=payload)
    result = response.json()
    result_zero = result['tracks']['items'][0]
    
    return result_zero['uri']

def main(fn):
    tags = get_tags(IMGPATH+fn)
    for tag_chunk in chunks(tags,3):
        artists_titles = genius_search(tag_chunk)
        for artist, title in artists_titles:
            try:
                result_uri = spotify_search(artist+' '+title)
            except IndexError:
                pass
            else:
                return result_uri


if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run()

It uses the same algorithm discussed in my prior post. Now that I have the opportunity to test it more, I am not quite satisfied with the results it is providing. First of all, they are not entirely deterministic (you can upload the same photo twice and end up with two different songs in some cases). Moreover, the results from a human face — which I expect to be a common use case — are not very personal. For the next steps in this project, I plan to integrate additional data including GPS, weather, time of day, and possibly even facial expressions in order to improve the output.

The broken cameras I ordered from eBay have arrived, and I have been considering how to use them as cases for the new models. I also purchased a GPS module for my Raspberry Pi, so the next Sound Camera prototype, with new features integrated, will likely be a physical version. I’m planning to use this Kodak Brownie camera (c. 1916):

My code:
iPython Notebook

The script I wrote gets concept words from the image via Clarifai, then searches song lyrics for those words on Genius, then finds the song on Spotify. Below are some images I put through the algorithm. You can click on each one to hear the song that resulted, though you will need to login to Spotify to do so.

The next step will be to get this code working on a Raspberry Pi inside one of the film camera bodies I just received via eBay.

I have not yet chosen the authors I plan to embed in these cameras, or how I plan to present the extracted text. I also have tentative plans for a new iteration of the talking surveillance camera I developed last semester, but more on that will be provided in future posts.

This week, I spent some time on eBay finding a few broken medium- and large-format cameras to use as cases. Here’s what I bought (for $5 to $25 each):

I am current waiting to receive them so that I can start planning the builds. Below is a list of the additional parts that will be required for each camera:

Raspberry Pi 2 ($40)
85.60mm x 56mm x 21mm (or roughly 3.37″ x 2.21″ x 0.83″)

Raspberry Pi Camera Board ($30)
25mm x 20mm x 9mm

Buck Converter ($10)
51 * 26.3 * 14 (L * W * H) (mm)

7.4V LiIon Battery Pack ($90)
22mm (0.9″) x 104mm (4.1″) x 107mm (4.2″)
OR two USB batteries ($40)

Thermal Printer ($25 from China or $50 from U.S.)
~4 1/8″ (105mm) x 2 1/4″ (58mm) for rectangular hole
~58mm deep

On/Off Switch ($1)
18.60mm x 12.40mm rectangular hole
13.9mm deep

LED Button ($5)
Shutter button, user will hold for 3 seconds to turn off Raspberry Pi
16mm round hole
~1.5″ deep

1/4-size permaproto board ($3)

1/4″ Acrylic ($12) or Broken Medium Format TLR ($30-69)

Jumper Wires ($2)

For my final projects in Conversation and Computation with Lauren McCarthy and This Is The Remix with Roopa Vasudevan, I iterated on my word.camera project. I added a few new features to the web application, including a private API that I used to enable the creation of a physical version of word.camera inside a Mamiya C33 TLR.

The current version of the code remains open source and available on GitHub, and the project continues to receive positive mentions in the press.

On April 19, I announced two new features for word.camera via the TinyLetter email newsletter I advertised on the site.

Hello,

Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter, wherein I will provide occasional updates regarding my project, word.camera.

I wanted to let you know about two new features I added to the site in the past week:

word.camera/albums You can now generate ebooks (DRM-free ePub format) from sets of lexographs.

word.camera/postcards You can support word.camera by sending a lexograph as a postcard, anywhere in the world for $5. I am currently a graduate student, and proceeds will help cover the cost of maintaining this web application as a free, open source project.

Also:

word.camera/a/XwP59n1zR A lexograph album containing some of the best results I’ve gotten so far with the camera on my phone.

1, 2, 3 A few random lexographs I did not make that were popular on social media.

Best,

Ross Goodwin
rossgoodwin.com
word.camera

Next, I set to work on the physical version. I decided to use a technique I developed on another project earlier in the semester to create word.camera epitaphs composed of highly relevant paragraphs from novels. To ensure fair use of copyrighted materials, I determined that all of this additional data would be processed locally on the physical camera.

I developed a collection of data from a combination of novels that are considered classics and those I personally enjoyed, and I included only paragraphs over 99 characters in length. In total, the collection contains 7,113,809 words from 48 books.

Below is an infographic showing all the books used in my corpus, and their relative included word counts (click on it for the full-size image).

To build the physical version of word.camera, I purchased the following materials:

• Raspberry Pi 2 board
• Raspberry Pi camera module
• Two (2) 10,000 mAh batteries
• Thermal receipt printer
• 40 female-to-male jumper wires
• Three (3) extra-small prototyping perf boards
• LED button

After some tinkering, I was able to put together the arrangement pictured below, which could print raw word.camera output on the receipt printer.

I thought for a long time about the type of case I wanted to put the camera in. My original idea was a photobooth, but I felt that a portable camera—along the lines of Matt Richardson’s Descriptive Camera—might take better advantage of the Raspberry Pi’s small footprint.

Rather than fabricating my own case, I determined that an antique film camera might provide a familiar exterior to draw in people not familiar with the project. (And I was creating it for a remix-themed class, after all.) So I purchased a lot of three broken TLR film cameras on eBay, and the Mamiya C33 was in the best condition of all of them, so I gutted it. (N.B. I’m an antique camera enthusiast—I own a working version of the C33’s predecessor, the C2—and, despite its broken condition, cutting open the bellows of the C33 felt sacrilegious.)

I laser cut some clear acrylic I had left over from the traveler’s lamp project to fill the lens holes and mount the LED button on the back of the camera. Here are some photos of the finished product:

And here is the code that’s running on the Raspberry Pi (the crux of the matching algorithm is on line 90):

import uuid
import picamera
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import requests
from time import sleep
import os
import json
from Adafruit_Thermal import *
from alchemykey import apikey
import time

# SHUTTER COUNT / startNo GLOBAL
startNo = 0

# Init Printer
printer = Adafruit_Thermal("/dev/ttyAMA0", 19200, timeout=5)
printer.setSize('S')
printer.justify('L')
printer.setLineHeight(36)

# Init Camera
camera = picamera.PiCamera()

# Init GPIO
GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

# Working Dir
cwd = '/home/pi/tlr'

# Init Button Pin
GPIO.setup(21, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)

# Init LED Pin
GPIO.setup(20, GPIO.OUT)

# Init Flash Pin
GPIO.setup(16, GPIO.OUT)

# LED and Flash Off
GPIO.output(20, False)
GPIO.output(16, False)

# Load lit list
lit = json.load( open(cwd+'/lit.json', 'r') )


def blink(n):
    for _ in range(n):
        GPIO.output(20, True)
        sleep(0.2)
        GPIO.output(20, False)
        sleep(0.2)

def takePhoto():
    fn = str(int(time.time()))+'.jpg' # TODO: Change to timestamp hash
    fp = cwd+'/img/'+fn
    GPIO.output(16, True)
    camera.capture(fp)
    GPIO.output(16, False)
    return fp

def getText(imgPath):
    endPt = 'https://word.camera/img'
    payload = {'Script': 'Yes'}
    files = {'file': open(imgPath, 'rb')}
    response = requests.post(endPt, data=payload, files=files)
    return response.text

def alchemy(text):
    endpt = "http://access.alchemyapi.com/calls/text/TextGetRankedConcepts"
    payload = {"apikey": apikey,
               "text": text,
               "outputMode": "json",
               "showSourceText": 0,
               "knowledgeGraph": 1,
               "maxRetrieve": 500}
    headers = {'content-type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'}
    r = requests.post(endpt, data=payload, headers=headers)
    return r.json()

def findIntersection(testDict):
    returnText = ""
    returnTitle = ""
    returnAuthor = ""
    recordInter = set(testDict.keys())
    relRecord = 0.0
    for doc in lit:
        inter = set(doc['concepts'].keys()) & set(testDict.keys())
        if inter:
            relSum = sum([doc['concepts'][tag]+testDict[tag] for tag in inter])
            if relSum > relRecord: 
                relRecord = relSum
                recordInter = inter
                returnText = doc['text']
                returnTitle = doc['title']
                returnAuthor = doc['author']
    doc = {
        'text': returnText,
        'title': returnTitle,
        'author': returnAuthor,
        'inter': recordInter,
        'record': relRecord
    }
    return doc

def puncReplace(text):
    replaceDict = {
        '—': '---',
        '–': '--',
        '‘': "\'",
        '’': "\'",
        '“': '\"',
        '”': '\"',
        '´': "\'",
        'ë': 'e',
        'ñ': 'n'
    }

    for key in replaceDict:
        text = text.replace(key, replaceDict[key])

    return text


blink(5)
while 1:
    input_state = GPIO.input(21)
    if not input_state:
        GPIO.output(20, True)
        try:
            # Get Word.Camera Output
            print "GETTING TEXT FROM WORD.CAMERA..."
            wcText = getText(takePhoto())
            blink(3)
            GPIO.output(20, True)
            print "...GOT TEXT"

            # Print
            # print "PRINTING PRIMARY"
            # startNo += 1
            # printer.println("No. %i\n\n\n%s" % (startNo, wcText))

            # Get Alchemy Data
            print "GETTING ALCHEMY DATA..."
            data = alchemy(wcText)
            tagRelDict = {concept['text']:float(concept['relevance']) for concept in data['concepts']}
            blink(3)
            GPIO.output(20, True)
            print "...GOT DATA"

            # Make Match
            print "FINDING MATCH..."
            interDoc = findIntersection(tagRelDict)
            print interDoc
            interText = puncReplace(interDoc['text'].encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace'))
            interTitle = puncReplace(interDoc['title'].encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace'))
            interAuthor = puncReplace(interDoc['author'].encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace'))
            blink(3)
            GPIO.output(20, True)
            print "...FOUND"

            grafList = [p for p in wcText.split('\n') if p]

            # Choose primary paragraph
            primaryText = min(grafList, key=lambda x: x.count('#'))
            url = 'word.camera/i/' + grafList[-1].strip().replace('#', '')

            # Print
            print "PRINTING..."
            startNo += 1
            printStr = "No. %i\n\n\n%s\n\n%s\n\n\n\nEPITAPH\n\n%s\n\nFrom %s by %s" % (startNo, primaryText, url, interText, interTitle, interAuthor)
            printer.println(printStr)

        except:
            print "SOMETHING BROKE"
            blink(15)

        GPIO.output(20, False)

Thanks to a transistor pulsing circuit that keeps the printer’s battery awake, and some code that automatically tethers the Raspberry Pi to my iPhone, the Fiction Camera is fully portable. I’ve been walking around Brooklyn and Manhattan over the past week making lexographs—the device is definitely a conversation starter. As a street photographer, I’ve noticed that people seem to be more comfortable having their photograph taken with it than with a standard camera, possibly because the visual image (and whether they look alright in it) is far less important.

As a result of these wanderings, I’ve accrued quite a large number of lexograph receipts. Earlier iterations of the receipt design contained longer versions of the word.camera output. Eventually, I settled on a version that contains a number (indicating how many lexographs have been taken since the device was last turned on), one paragraph of word.camera output, a URL to the word.camera page containing the photo + complete output, and a single high-relevance paragraph from a novel.

I also demonstrated the camera at ConvoHack, our final presentation event for Conversation and Computation, which took place at Babycastles gallery, and passed out over 50 lexograph receipts that evening alone.

Photographs by Karam Byun

Often, when photographing a person, the camera will output a passage from a novel featuring a character description that subjects seem to relate to. Many people have told me the results have qualities that remind them of horoscopes.

Last week, I launched a web application and a concept for photographic text generation that I have been working on for a few months. The idea came to me while working on another project, a computer generated screenplay, and I will discuss the connection in this post.

word.camera is responsive — it works on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices running recent versions of iOS or Android. The code behind it is open source and available on GitHub, because lexography is for everyone.

Users can share their lexographs using unique URLs. Of all this lexographs I’ve seen generated by users since the site launched (there are now almost 7,000), this one, shared on reddit’s /r/creativecoding, stuck with me the most: http://word.camera/i/7KZPPaqdP

I was surprised when the software noticed and commented on the singer in the painting behind me: http://word.camera/i/ypQvqJr6L

I was inspired to create this project while working on another project. This semester, I received a grant from the Future of Storytelling Initiative at NYU to produce a computer generated screenplay, and I had been thinking about how to generate text that’s more cohesive and realistically descriptive, meaning that it would transition between related topics in a logical fashion and describe a scene that could realistically exist (no “colorless green ideas sleeping furiously”) in order to making filming the screenplay possible . After playing with the Clarifai API, which uses convolutional neural networks to tag images, it occurred to me that including photographs in my input corpus, rather than relying on text alone, could provide those qualities. word.camera is my first attempt at producing that type of generative text.

At the moment, the results are not nearly as grammatical as I would like them to be, and I’m working on that. The algorithm extracts tags from images using Clarifai’s convolutional neural networks, then expands those tags into paragraphs using ConceptNet (a lexical relations database developed at MIT) and a flexible template system. The template system enables the code to build sentences that connect concepts together.

This project is about augmenting our creativity and presenting images in a different format, but it’s also about creative applications of artificial intelligence technology. I think that when we think about the type of artificial intelligence we’ll have in the future, based on what we’ve read in science fiction novels, we think of a robot that can describe and interact with its environment with natural language. I think that creating the type of AI we imagine in our wildest sci-fi fantasies is not only an engineering problem, but also a design problem that requires a creative approach.

I hope lexography eventually becomes accepted as a new form of photography. As a writer and a photographer, I love the idea that I could look at a scene and photograph it because it might generate an interesting poem or short story, rather than just an interesting image. And I’m not trying to suggest that word.camera is the final or the only possible implementation of that new art form. I made the code behind word.camera open source because I want others to help improve it and make their own versions — provided they also make their code available under the same terms, which is required under the GNU GPLv3 open source license I’m using. As the technology gets better, the results will get better, and lexography will make more sense to people as a worthy artistic pursuit.

I’m thrilled that the project has received worldwide attention from photography blogs and a few media outlets, and I hope users around the world continue enjoying word.camera as I keep working to improve it. Along with improving the language, I plan to expand the project by offering a mobile app and generated downloadable ebooks so that users can enjoy their lexographs offline.

Click Here for Part II