This thesis addresses the issues of combining camera calibration constraints from various sources and reconstructing scene geometry from single and multiple views. A geometric approach is taken, associating both structure recovery and calibration with geometric entities. Three sources of calibration constraints are considered: scene constraints, such as the parallelism and orthogonality of lines, constraints from partial knowledge of camera parameters, and constraints derived from the motion between views. First, methods of rectifying the projective distortion in an imaged plane are examined. Metric rectification constraints are developed by constraining the imaged plane circular points. The internal camera parameters are associated with the absolute conic. It is shown how imaged plane circular points constrain the image of the absolute conic, and are constrained by a known absolute conic in return. A method of using planes with known metric structure as a calibration object is developed. Next, calibration and reconstruction from single views is addressed. A well known configuration of the vanishing points of three orthogonal directions and knowledge that the camera has square pixels is expressed geometrically and subjected to degeneracy and error analysis. The square pixel constraint is shown to be geometrically equivalent to treating the image plane as a metric scene plane. Use of the vanishing point configuration is extended to two views, where three vanishing points and known epipolar geometry define a three dimensional affine reconstruction. Calibration and metric reconstruction follows similarly to the single view case, with the addition of auto-calibration constraints from the motion between views. The auto-calibration constraints are derived from the geometric representation of the square pixel constraints, by transferring the image plane circular points between views. Degenerate cases for constraints from square pixels and cameras having identical internal parameters are described. Finally, a constraint on the metric rectification of an affine reconstruction from the relative lengths of a pair of 3D line segments is developed. The constraint is applied to human motion capture from a pair of affine cameras.

This thesis is an exploratory research concerned with the investigation and identification of complex systems and their innovation life patterns. There is evidence in the literature to suggest the existence of complex systems, which differentiate themselves not only by organisational structure, but also by the way, they innovate. Complex systems seem to display a nested hierarchical formation of technological elements and the clustering of those technological elements in a synergistic manner in order to offer an enhanced service. Another distinct element of complex systems is the dependency that some particular elements in the hierarchy seem to display. This dependency of the elements in the nested hierarchy means that changes (innovation) made in one of the elements of the hierarchy might result in changes in other elements or the whole hierarchy. These characteristics not only differentiate complex from simple systems but are also the main reason why complex systems innovate in a different manner from simple systems (classical view of innovation). There is an important gap in the study of innovation in complex systems in the literature. Firstly, if in fact complex systems innovate differently from simple systems there is no evidence of a model that could clearly identify and separate complex from simple systems. Secondly, previous research on complex systems theory and innovation has studied complexity as a whole; however, the dependency between the elements is the crucial factor that hinders complex systems from innovating according to the classical view of innovation. There is no indication in the literature of a model that could clearly identify those distinct elements within the complex systems hierarchy that display the dependency. If there was a model that could identify the risk elements in the systems that carry the dependency, marketing/design managers could develop more efficient innovation strategies without putting at risk the performance of some elements of the systems or the whole product. This research proposes a model that could help to identify the particular elements that display that dependency and the possible effect that it could have in the whole hierarchy. This model is also used as a tool to identify and separate complex systems from simple systems. This research uses cameras in an example study to test the models suggested by this research. Previous research on complexity has been done in an industrial market; however, there is no empirical evidence in the literature of a model that could help the investigation of the evolution of complex systems in a commercial market. Products in a commercial market are subject to heterogeneity of demand, speed of innovation, and sophistication of needs. A model that could map the innovation pattern of commercial complex systems could help marketing and design companies with innovation strategies and decisions. In this research, this model was applied to the camera example and, in fact, cameras gave high indications and displayed clear evidence that could lead to the classification of cameras as complex systems. Cameras display evidence both of dependency between the elements and of a nested hierarchical formation, which are the elements that separate complex from simple systems. Subsequent to the finding of the evidences that support cameras as complex systems, this research investigates the innovation pattern of cameras from 1955 to 2011, and compares this innovation pattern to the classical view of both innovation and complex systems. As indicated in the literature, even though cameras have some elements common to the classical view of innovation at the beginning of the innovation life cycle, they display a rather different pattern closer to that offered by complex systems innovation. By applying this model, this research not only seems to help the classification and distinguishing complex from simple systems but also studies the complex system as a whole, and the identification of the elements that display dependency and could put any innovation activity at risk. This model also offers the possibility of studying innovation and clearly identifying to what extent and in which manner complex systems innovate differently from simple systems.

This dissertation documents two aspects of the development and use of zoom lenses in American film and television from 1946 to 1974. It contributes a detailed account of the impact of Zoomar lenses on early postwar American television, and of the later role of ‘TV Generation’ creative figures who started their careers in television before becoming feature directors. Chapter 1 introduces the study and defines key terms used throughout. Chapter 2 includes a comprehensive literature review of existing critical and historical approaches to the zoom lens. Chapter 3 outlines methodologies for source selection and analysis. Chapter 4 accounts for the development and technological heritage of the Zoomar lens. Inventive efforts and methods used by its primary inventor, Frank Back, are discussed. Chapter 5 outlines the means by which Back and his business partners marketed the lens. In Chapter 6, the extent to which the lens was used in the American television industry between 1946 and 1956 is demonstrated. Chapter 7 discusses the American market entry of the Pan Cinor zoom lens, and attempts by Zoomar to use patent law to block it. Chapter 8 discusses the way in which zoom lenses were used in television during the later 1950s and early 1960s, with a particular focus on some of the ‘TV Generation’ directors. Chapter 9 discusses developments in zoom lens technology and in industrial attitudes towards the use of such technology. Chapter 10 discusses the use of the zoom by TV Generation directors in their later feature film work. The final chapter compares discussions of Robert Altman’s use of the zoom in the early 1970s with the problematizing example of contemporaneous television style. Significant findings are summarized, and areas for future investigation suggested. Specifically, the dissertation demonstrates that early postwar American television is a rich untapped area for future investigations of the roots of film technology, and that from 1946 to 1974 zoom lens development was more gradual, incremental and complex than previously suggested.

This study provides a new understanding of the nature of Eastman Kodak Research. The thesis considers the European context between 1891 and 1912, before the creation of the first Kodak Research Laboratory in 1912 at Rochester, New York, and between 1928 and 1950 with the opening of two additional Research Laboratories in the United Kingdom and in France. It sheds light on the technological and organisational relationship between the main Kodak Research Laboratory in Rochester and the later, related, Kodak Research Laboratories in Europe. Analysis of publications from numerous independent photochemists demonstrates that industrial secrecy during the interwar years limited the sharing of scientific knowledge and delayed developments in photographic science. The first Kodak Research Laboratory was created in Rochester in 1912 to address this issue internally. Its first director, Kenneth Mees, developed an innovative organisational model which combined fundamental and applied research in order to protect scientific facts about the photographic process that were discovered in-house and to create the appropriate preconditions for the development of new and marketable products. Qualitative analysis of unpublished research reports stresses the multi-faceted nature of the photographic research undertaken at the Harrow Research Laboratory from 1929 onwards. It shows that the British Laboratory was open to external sources of scientific knowledge and innovative technologies. Photographic knowledge was shared significantly during the 1930s between the American, British and French Research Laboratories and Production Departments, as also evidenced by the previously undiscovered personal notebooks of a number of photochemists. Analysis of the British and more recently uncovered French Kodak archives also reveals that long-term Kodak research about colour photography was interrelated with the European Kodak Research Laboratories during the interwar period. Original analyses of unpublished patent correspondence demonstrate that the editorial drafting of strategic patents during the Second World War was at the core of the scientific collaboration between Kodak Limited and independent inventors. This thesis concludes that the work of the European Kodak research laboratories was fundamental to Eastman Kodak in the twentieth century. Despite cultural disparities, the three laboratories followed an organisational model that promoted scientific collaboration. Furthermore, the modest size of Kodak Research in Europe during the early years forced the company to partially adopt an “Open Innovation” model, combining external sources of technology with in-house research. This is the first study to address the question of the European nature of Kodak Research using unpublished laboratory archives. It unveils the complete organisation of Kodak research, including knowledge transfer and scientific collaborations, as well as the actors in Kodak Research that marked the history of twentieth century photography.

This thesis explores the contemporary genre of popular digital photography, with a specific look at photographs taken in/of Iran. It focuses on the contemporary practice of 'photoblogging' or photography-based weblogging. Photoblogs are the result of the daily posting of digital photographs concerning everyday life in Iran on personal blogs specifically dedicated to photography. The title of the thesis, Camera Iranica, refers to the subject and scope of the study, as well as to its digital-ethnographic field site. I demarcate this as a conceptual and transnational cultural field, encompassing the multitude of places and spaces, on- and offline in which Iranians across the world engage in the practice of producing and viewing popular digital photography. Iranian photoblogs are shown to operate in a manner contingent upon a particular 'visual legacy' of contested cultural identity politics since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, propagated inside Iran and in 'the West'. The thesis traces the social, economic and political implications of developments in photography and digital technologies in Iran in light of this backdrop, and explores how and why Iranians in Iran and abroad are taking up popular digital photography for visual storytelling projects, with 'Iran' as their visual subject. Based on the study's empirical findings, I extrapolate theoretical arguments concerning historical and cultural understandings of digital photographs shown and seen in online environments, and propose innovative methodological strategies for digital-visual anthropologists to continue work in these fields.