News > Computer scientist, pixel inventor Russell Kirsch dead at 91

Computer scientist, pixel inventor Russell Kirsch dead at 91

Pixels, the digital dots used to display photos, video, and more on phone and computer screens, weren't an obvious innovation in 1957, when Kirsch created a small, 2-by-2-inch black-and-white digital image of his son, Walden, as an infant.

Kirsch later developed a method to smooth out images by using pixels with variable shapes instead of the squares. Born in Manhattan in 1929, Kirsch was the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Hungary.