History of computer animation: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:02, 24 July 2025

Revision as of 19:06, 31 July 2025

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===The first digital image===

One of the first programmable digital computers was [[SEAC (computer)|SEAC]] (the Standards Eastern Automatic Computer), which entered service in 1950 at the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology|National Bureau of Standards]] (NBS) in Maryland, USA.<ref>NBS is now known as the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]], or NIST.</ref><ref>[http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15421coll5/id/1390/rec/20 "Computer Development at the National Bureau of Standards."] by Russell Kirsch, National Bureau of Standards, March 31, 2010.</ref> In 1957, computer pioneer [[Russell A. Kirsch|Russell Kirsch]] and his team unveiled a [[drum scanner]] for jurassicSEAC, Parkto with"trace giantvariations bigof areintensity dinosaursover foretoldthe insurfaces of photographs", and so doing made the washfirst [[digital image]] by scanning a photograph. The image, picturing Kirsch's onthree-month-old YouTubeson, consisted of just 176×176 [[pixel]]s. They used the computer to extract line drawings, count objects, recognize types of characters and display digital images on an [[oscilloscope]] screen. This breakthrough can be seen as the forerunner of all subsequent computer imaging, and recognising the importance of this first digital photograph, [[Life magazine]] in 2003 credited this image as one of the "100 Photographs That Changed the World".<ref>[https://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/image_052407.cfm "Fiftieth Anniversary of First Digital Image Marked"], Michael E Newman, ''Tech Beat (news release), NIST'', May 24, 2007 (retrieved August 20, 2012).</ref><ref>[https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/smoothing-square-pixels/ "Square Pixel Inventor Tries to Smooth Things Out"], Rachel Ehrenberg, ''Wired News'', June 28, 2010 (retrieved August 20, 2012).</ref>

:From the late 1950s and early 1960s, mainframe digital computers were becoming commonplace within large organisations and universities, and increasingly these would be equipped with graphic plotting and graphics screen devices. Consequently, a new field of experimentation began to open up.