As a scientist at the National Bureau of Standards in the 1950s, Russell Kirsch worked with the only programmable computer in the United States.
“The only thing that constrained us was what we imagined,” he says. “So there were a lot of things we thought of doing. One of which was, what would happen if computers could see the world the way we see it?”
Kirsch scanned a picture of his infant son into the computer. That first digital image established the square pixel as the norm and our visual universe grew rougher around the edges.
Russell Kirsch is somewhat apologetic about the choices he made in 1957.
“Squares was the logical thing to do,” Kirsch says. “Of course, the logical thing was not the only possibility … but we used squares. It was something very foolish that everyone in the world has been suffering from ever since.”
Kirsch’s son is now 53. His digital baby photo still exists, having been replicated several times in the last 50 years.
Copy of the world's first digital photo, a scanned image of Russell Kirsch's son in 1957. Shown at 176 x 176 pixels, the original size (slightly cropped).
