Russell Kirsch, the inventor of the pixel, has died. Kirsch died on August 11 at his home in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 91. Kirsch was known as the inventor of the digital pixel, and was a computer scientist who also received credit for scanning one of the first digital photos. on a computer, per Oregon Live. He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1929, and completed his elementary education at the Bronx High School of Science. He then went on to New York University, Harvard, and then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kirsch made a small digital image of his son, Walden, as a baby in 1957 and scanned it into a computer using a machine he and his team of researchers made. This digital image would make history because it was one of the first images scanned to a computer. Life magazine named it one of 100 photos that changed the world. The original image is on display in the Portland Art Museum’s digital collection.
It was his and his team’s belief that computers would one day come to reflect that of the human mind, and although the world is not quite there yet, it is growing closer to Kirsch’s vision every day.
Kirsch worked for more than 50 years as a scientist for what is now known as the National Institute of Science and Technology in Maryland. It became known as the US National Bureau of Standards when he worked there. Kirsch left Maryland in 2001 and moved to Portland. He had dementia in his later years.
Russell Kirsch’s son Walden was one of the first to scan images into a computer. Image courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology
Kirsch is survived by his wife Joan Kirsch, with whom he was 65, and his sons Walden and Peter and his daughters Lindsey and Kara.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance writer and guide for IGN. You can follow him Twitter @LeBlancWes.
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