Electronic Neural Network, Mark I Perceptron
date: label: date made
content: 1958
notes: label: Description
content: A brain model explains – in mathematical and physical terms – how portions of the brain function. Since the 1940s, scientist have proposed many different models, usually conceived abstractly as networks of neurons – basic nerve cells that are connected in signal-generating units.
label: Description
content: In 1957, Frank Rosenblatt of Cornell University described a neural network, which he dubbed a perceptron; that might serve a model for systems dealing with perception and memory. By the following year, he and colleagues had constructed this device, the Mark I Perceptron, an electronic embodiment of the idea. The machine was created at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory in Buffalo, New York, with funding from the Office of Naval Research and the Rome Air Development Center.
label: Description
content: As Rosenblatt described it, a neural network is composed of three types of signal-generating units – sensory (S), association (A) and response (R). The S units receive input signals known as stimuli, which are transmitted to some other signal-generating unit of the network. The A units receive and transmit signals among other units of the network. The R units transmit signals received from other units of the network and transmit them to the outside.
label: Description
content: In the Mark I Perceptron, the units are arranged from left to right, as shown in the photograph. The leftmost unit has at the top a monitor for the S unit and below this an array of manual switches providing stimulus. A large plugboard is behind the two doors of the cabinet right of the S unit, connecting its circuits to those of the A unit. The cabinet itself is marked at the top: MARK I. Right of these is the array of potentiometers that comprises the A unit. A mark atop it reads: PERCEPTRON. Right of this is the panel of the R unit, and rightmost a panel of meters.
label: Description
content: The Mark I Perceptron came to the Smithsonian in 1967 from Cornell University as a transfer from the Office of Naval Research.
label: Description
content: References:
label: Description
content: Frank Rosenblatt, <I>Principles of Neurodynamics: Perceptrons and the Theory of Brain Mechanisms</I>, Buffalo: Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, 1961.
label: Description
content: There also is a useful Wikipedia article <I>Perceptron</I> which gives further references.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, Buffalo
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0819.01
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0819.01
label: accession number
content: 1987.0819
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Neural Network
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: first part: 199.4 cm x 194.3 cm x 64.1 cm; 78 1/2 in x 76 1/2 in x 25 1/4 in
label: Measurements
content: second part: 200.6 cm x 146 cm x 64.7 cm; 78 31/32 in x 57 15/32 in x 25 15/32 in