Pixel inventor Russell Kirsch dies aged 91Friday 14 August 2020
Russell Kirsch Credit: AP/Press Association Images
Russell Kirsch, a computer scientist credited with inventing the pixel and scanning the worlds first digital photograph, has died aged 91.
Pixels, the digital dots used to display photos, video and more on phone and computer screens, were not an obvious innovation in 1957, when Kirsch created a small, 2-by-2-inch black-and-white digital image of his son, Walden, as an infant.
That was among the first images ever scanned into a computer, using a device created by his research team at the US National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institutes of Science and Technology).
This work laid the foundations for satellite imagery, CT scans, virtual reality and Facebook, said a 2010 Science News article about Kirsch.
Russell Kirsch holding the image of his son, Walden, that was scanned into the worlds first digital scanner in 1957 Credit: Jamie Francis/The Oregonian via AP, File
That first square image, that article said, measured a mere 176 pixels on a side - just shy of 31,000 pixels in total.
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