Pixels and Me, lecture by Richard Lyon

Odyssey in Technology: Pixels and Me, lecture by Richard Lyon. Lecture recorded at the Computer History Museum, 03/23/2005. Computers have revolutionized image media. Richard Lyon, one of the current pioneers of digital cameras, has found that several generations of pioneers in this field have been entangled with the terms “picture element“ and “pixel“ and that studying the history of the terminology is a fruitful approach to the history of the people and technology. Vladimir Zworykin's television research group at RCA popularized the term “picture element“ in the 1930s, while the TV researchers at Bell Labs ignored that term, preferring “image element.“ Fred Billingsley and others at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed computerized image processing and propagated the term “pixel“ in the 1960s, while image processing researchers at Bell Labs ignored that term, preferring “pel.“ In the early 1970s, “pixel“ was spread throug