Name: A Biography of the Pixel
ISBN: 9780262542456

A Biography of the Pixel

The pixel as the organizing principle of all pictures, from cave paintings to Toy Story. The Great Digital Convergence of all media types into one universal digital medium occurred, with little fanfare, at the recent turn of the millennium. The bit became the universal medium, and the pixel--a particular packaging of bits--conquered the world. Henceforward, nearly every picture in the world would be composed of pixels--cell phone pictures, app interfaces, Mars Rover transmissions, book illustrations, videogames. In A Biography of the Pixel, Pixar cofounder Alvy Ray Smith argues that the pixel is the organizing principle of most modern media, and he presents a few simple but profound ideas that unify the dazzling varieties of digital image making. Smith's story of the pixel's development begins with Fourier waves, proceeds through Turing machines, and ends with the first digital movies from Pixar, DreamWorks, and Blue Sky. Today, almost all the pictures we encounter are digital--mediated by the pixel and irretrievably separated from their media; museums and kindergartens are two of the last outposts of the analog. Smith explains, engagingly and accessibly, how pictures composed of invisible stuff become visible--that is, how digital pixels convert to analog display elements.

What Hacker News says

topherjaynesJul 2023

Have you looked for online courses? Here are a few of the books I'd go through around computers, but are you thinking more extensive history of "technology?" Like how we've grown from printing press as innovation?

Soul of a New Machine is a great non-fiction but reads like a fiction account of trying to overtake the Vax by building one of the first 32-bit machines https://www.amazon.com/Soul-New-Machine-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0316...

A Biography of the Pixel https://www.amazon.com/Biography-Pixel-Leonardo-Alvy-Smith/d... great overview of the innovation and math that pushed graphics forwrard

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood https://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/1... walks through information theory and how we got to the internet

Dealers of lightning: https://www.amazon.com/Dealers-of-Lightning-audiobook/dp/B00... how a lot of modenr computing grew out of Xerox

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anderspitmanJun 2023

Biography of the Pixel looks really good as well (by the other founder, Alvy Ray Smith). Been on my list for a while

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sohkamyungJun 2023

I've read "The Biography of the Pixel" book. It's an amazing and educational book about the history of computer graphics and the definition of a pixel by Smith.

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jeffreportmill1May 2023

I highly recommend this book as well. I am always on the lookout for technical books that have a good mix of history. One of my favorite examples is the "Disappearing Spoon", which is an engaging exploration of chemistry with stories. Biography of the Pixel is right up there with that.

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tropMar 2023

Also worth checking out Alvy Ray Smith's 2021 book, "A Biography of the Pixel". It is (from what I've read so far), much more in the history/theory of technology field, examining the math/technology behind resolving continuous to the discrete (waves to pixels, vectors to rasters, etc.), and the associated cultural/business/entertainment shifts.

Not to be petty, but I see that to all appearances Smith is not, having given "Catmull, Edwin" about half a page of index entries. (The cover identifies Smith as "Cofounder of Pixar. And that there are index entries for "Pixar, origin and cofounding of, cofounded by Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith" as well as for "Pixar, origin and cofounding of, not cofounded by Steve Jobs".)

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sohkamyungDec 2022

An interesting book to read is "A Biography of the Pixel" by Alvy Ray Smith[1], for those interested in the history of the sampling theorem, computer imaging and computer animation. It concludes with the steps leading up to the making of "Toy Story".

[1] https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/5145/A-Biography-of-the-Pi...

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