OK, how did they make those pictures?

The new Theordore Roosevelt Presidential Library has a fascinating interactive feature that defies explanation!

When you enter the museum you fill out a brief form with your name, email address, etc. Then, you stand in front of a camera to have your face’s photo taken. (Like the one at the DMV or the Airport). You are then given a wooden token or fob on a wristband

As you wind your way around the various exhibits, there are six stations where you place your fob on a button and it immediately shows a picture of YOU, in black and white, on a large screen, in a setting related to the subject of the exhibit. For example, if it’s about the time TR was Police Commissioner in New York, it shows you in a police uniform.  Or, at another post, you as a Rough Rider. People line up at these stations and get a real laugh out of what it shows.

When you return home, you find an email from the Library, thanking you for your visit and including links to those photos so you can add them to your vacation photo album. We later concluded that they would send you these six photos, whether or not you actually participated in their little “game”.

Then I, intrigued with the capabilities of AI, ask Chatgpt to colorize the photo. The results are amazing!

Here’s what’s really weird: all they have to work with is that single photo of your face. And, if you look closely at my photos, you’ll see a silver chain bracelet on my right wrist. That’s my bracelet! And, sometimes my rings are there, sometimes not. How do they do that??