An image scanner is a device that captures a physical image, page of text or object and converts it into digital data a computer can store, display or process, typically by moving a row of light sensors across the item being scanned. Engineer Russell Kirsch built the first digital image scanner at the United States National Bureau of Standards in 1957, using a rotating drum to convert a photograph of his infant son into a grid of digital pixels, producing what is considered the first digital image. Later flatbed and sheet-fed scanners became common office and home equipment, used to archive documents, digitize photographs and feed text into optical character recognition software.
Facts
SignificanceProduced the first image ever scanned into a computer, a photograph of Russell Kirsch's infant son Walden, which began digital imaging. 2 Sources
1. Russell Kirsch, Wikipedia
CareerQuote, Career
In 1957, Kirsch's group developed a digital image scanner
2. First Digital Image, NIST
First Digital Image, page bodyQuote, First Digital Image, page body
The first image scanned was a head-and-shoulders shot of Kirsch's three-month-old son Walden.
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