The Birth of Computer Vision

Reviews and Blurbs

"In this timely and eye-opening book, James E. Dobson provides a penetrating analysis of the opportunities and challenges of facial recognition and other computer vision technology by excavating its formation from the sediment of history, tracing its connections to the military industrial complex of the Cold War, and critically examining the notable successes and failures of embryonic research efforts and prototypes."

— David J. Gunkel, author of Deconstruction

"A key technology of our time, computer vision is embedded in both our professional and everyday lives in numerous ways—from helping doctors diagnose diseases to enabling organizations to obtain accurate information about remote natural disaster zones and refugee camps to allowing billions of people to capture better images with their phone cameras. Focusing on the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s, James E. Dobson offers the first book tracing the development of computer vision. Combining historical research and theoretical analysis, The Birth of Computer Vision is an invaluable contribution to the fields of media theory, software studies, and algorithm studies."

— Lev Manovich, author of Cultural Analytics

Appearances/Events:

I was a guest on a podcast discussion of The Birth of Computer Vision on The Deep Dive with Philip McKenzie. (November 10, 2023)
I presented on my book with Jill Walker Rettberg and Jussi Parikka for a Zoom discussion (recorded and available on YouTube) hosted by the Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen. (January 23, 2024)
Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal invited me and Jill Walker Rettberg to join his Life in Pixels interview series to talk about The Birth of Computer Vision and Jill's Machine Vision: How Algorithms are Changing the Way We See the World. (March 21, 2024)

Purchase: IndieBound Amazon Harvard Book Store

Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. Computer Vision
2. Inventing Machine Learning with the Perceptron
3. Describing Pictures: From Image Understanding to Computer Vision
4. Shaky Beginnings: Military Automatons and Line Detection
Coda