It works kind of like a vacuum, but instead of suction it uses a series of moving agitators to flatten or raise carpet fibers to produce a static monochrome image—but with surprising detail.

In 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom struck a pose with his then-wife Kimberly Guilfoyle on a fancy rug in a mansion for a magazine centerfold. Twenty years later, he can’t shake the image.

2 A lake filled with boats lies beneath a sky full of warplanes and helicopters in this beach-towel-sized rug. The carpet was made in Afghanistan soon after the 1979 Soviet invasion of the country.