Boeing Generative AI Photo Experience
A high-throughput AI photo booth for Boeing’s global trade show exhibits.
Boeing wanted to explore the use of an interactive LED wall as part of an attention-grabbing trade show installation. My team proposed ‘Mirror AR’, using a depth camera to composite visitors into a recreation of the 787 Dreamliner cabin. My role involved initial prototyping to evaluate and downselect depth camera configurations, as well as the inception and implementation of a low-latency, reliable & offline generative AI photobooth pipeline responsible for enhancing the captured image. My prototyping efforts affected top-level decisions about the design and behavior of the experience, and my novel AI image enhancement pipeline was responsible for achieving the quality and fidelity demanded by the Boeing creative team.
I was responsible for designing and implementing an end-to-end generative imaging pipeline that improved visual quality while remaining fast enough for a live event environment.
The challenge
The installation had several competing constraints:
- Photo delivery had to remain under 10 seconds to keep visitors moving through the booth.
- The final image needed to meet Boeing’s creative standards for realism.
- AI enhancement could not noticeably alter a visitor’s face or identity.
- The system needed to operate reliably throughout multi-day public events.
Rather than treating this as an image generation problem, I approached it as an experience design problem: determining where AI added value without disrupting the flow of the installation.
My role
I designed and implemented the complete software pipeline, serving as the bridge between Boeing’s creative direction and the engineering required to deliver it. This included:
- Evaluating multiple AI workflows through quality and performance benchmarking.
- Designing a custom ComfyUI pipeline around Qwen Image Edit.
- Integrating Topaz Photo AI as a preprocessing stage to improve image quality while preserving facial identity.
- Building automation to operate Topaz despite the lack of an API by driving its UI directly.
- Optimizing the system to achieve the event’s latency target on RTX Blackwell hardware.
- Iterating directly with Boeing’s creative team as visual requirements evolved.
Key design decisions
One of the earliest decisions was recognizing that visitors are extremely sensitive to changes in their appearance.
Instead of allowing the diffusion model to regenerate the entire subject, I masked facial regions — and later most of the subject except a narrow silhouette boundary — so the AI focused on the areas where it added the most value:
- Improving composite edges.
- Integrating subjects into the environment.
- Generating believable contact shadows.
- Preserving clothing and identity.
This produced images that felt substantially more realistic without making visitors feel that “AI had changed them.”
Iteration process
Because many image improvements were subtle, I built a lightweight browser-based comparison tool that allowed side-by-side A/B review with an interactive slider.
This became an important part of the design review process, making it easier for Boeing’s creative team to evaluate small visual differences and provide actionable feedback during iteration.
The comparators below recreate that review tool: pick a pipeline stage for each side, sweep the handle, and scroll to zoom into details — both sides pan and zoom together.
Internally, I benchmarked multiple combinations of models, hardware, and pipeline configurations, balancing image quality against runtime until the system consistently met the project’s performance target.
Outcome
The final installation became a featured attraction within Boeing’s trade show exhibit.
Across two major aviation expos, approximately 2,000 visitors participated in the experience, receiving AI-enhanced photos via email after interacting with the booth. The installation generated visitor contact information for Boeing while creating a memorable, high-quality interactive experience.
Following the project’s success, Boeing adopted the installation as a repeatable component of its trade show presence.
