Jaime Ortega

Darkroom

A cube that develops your photos by imagining them.

Year
2026
Made for
Raspberry Pi, e-paper
State
concept

Source

I carry a keychain camera that takes bad photos: noisy and low on detail, the way a cheap sensor is.

Darkroom is the appliance that receives them. Slide the SD card into the cube, a safelight comes on, and it works through the roll one frame at a time, running each shot through image generation that treats the original as a description rather than a file to clean up. It keeps your framing and invents the rest of the detail.

It takes minutes per frame. The waiting is the part I want back.

How to use it

Nothing to install — Darkroom is a concept, and the repo is the build notes.

  1. The renders, the parts and the developing pipeline are all in there, so you could build one.

    Terminal 
    git clone https://github.com/JaimeOrtegaxyz/darkroom.git

A Raspberry Pi, an e-paper panel and an SD slot. I have not built the final cube, so read the repo as a plan rather than a kit.

Slot in the card, close the door, wait.
Slot in the card, close the door, wait.

While building it

Been thinking about this one for a while. Have too much on my plate atm and I have to learn to prioritize work.

Read the journal
More work Everything, including the small stuff

POiO

ongoing

A chicken recipe assistant that is turning into a countertop bird.

Islands

shipped

Another macOS window manager. This one accordions.

dab

shipped

Turn any patch of your screen into pixel art.

Balancer

shipped

A personal trainer for micro-breaks, living in the menu bar.

Sona

concept

A mechanical keyboard with an instrument living inside it.

toss

prototype

Flick a ball off your screen. It lands on a friend's Mac.

Habitus

ongoing

Cheap marketplace finds, held to a hundred at a time.

Branding Oracle

ongoing

A brand engine a designer drives and a client never sees.

vaiven

shipped

A Canvas engine where every animation is one JSON config.