Television and the Origins of Visual Pattern Recognition AI in Japan: a ‘Quest for a Seeing Machine’

Hsiung, Hansun

Abstract

This article traces the genealogy of contemporary data-driven computer vision to developments at the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) in the 1960s. Specifically, it examines NHK’s Visual and Auditory Information Science Unit and its role in the invention of the world’s first deep convolutional neural network. The use of television to collect viewer behaviour data enabled modelling of eye-brain information processing, in particular mechanisms of feature extraction. This, in turn, linked Fukushima Kunihiko’s formative work on signal compression to the development of a pattern recognition machine, resulting in the creation of the world’s first convolutional neural network. Recovering this history is important for two reasons. First, it helps counter a trend of ‘digital universalism’ that covertly homogenizes local differences into a single culture of artificial intelligence in the Cold-War-era US. Second, it reveals the largely ignored role of television in the genesis of digital image technologies and AI more broadly.

Citation

Hsiung, H. (2024). Television and the Origins of Visual Pattern Recognition AI in Japan: a ‘Quest for a Seeing Machine’. Asiascape: Digital Asia, 11(1-2), 3-31. https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10054

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 8, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Nov 11, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 14, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 14, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 14, 2024
• Journal: Asiascape: Digital Asia
• Print ISSN: 2214-2304
• Electronic ISSN: 2214-2312
• Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1-2
• Article Number: 1
• Pages: 3-31
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10054
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3093954