Guides

Add AI to a photo booth you already own

As of:

You run a photo booth — rented, bought or self-built — and it does what it should: shoot, print, next. You do not have to replace it to get AI images. The whole conversion has two parts, and one of them is optional: the pictures have to reach VivaPix, and somewhere the scene has to be chosen. One at a time.

Step 1: the pictures flow out

Every photo booth program writes its shots into a folder. That folder is what gets watched — in the browser on the booth computer, for most setups with no installation at all, or as a small Windows program for continuous operation. Your software notices nothing and keeps printing as always. The set-up is described step by step under Watch a photo booth folder; for dslrBooth there is a guide of its own.

Step 2a: a tablet beside it — guests choose for themselves

Now the part that turns a retrofitted booth into an experience: the picker screen. A tablet or monitor stands next to the booth and shows the evening's shots. Whoever spots their photo taps it, picks a scene — Renaissance painting, winter forest, whatever the event offers — and gets the finished picture with a QR code to take away. The booth shoots, the tablet transforms: two devices, two movements, no queue at the shutter.

One detail of the setup looks like a trifle and is not: the picker screen pairs using a short code and does not carry the event's access code in its address bar. That device stands in the room all evening and is handled by guests — the master key to the celebration has no business being in its address bar.

And because the screen hangs in public view, it only shows what the booth delivered. Phone photos that guests upload to the gallery stay there — someone who puts a picture into a gallery does not expect it on a screen behind the buffet.

Step 2b: no second device — a fixed scene

The picker screen is optional. Without it, the booth runs on a fixed scene: every shot is transformed into the same style and the result lands next to the original. For a themed party, a company event with one desired scene or a first trial evening, that is not a fallback but the simplest setup — one device fewer, one step fewer.

What you need — and what you do not

What it costs

The folder watcher, the program and the picker screen all cost nothing — you pay for AI moments, meaning finished pictures. Failed attempts do not come off your balance. Volume pricing is on the pricing page; how the whole thing fits into your offering is on the page for operators and agencies.

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