Image Scanner

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.