In the early 1950s it was recognized that one of the most important sources of information for computers would be from printed documents. A reading machine that employed a novel technique was invented at NBS in the early 1950s. In one machine built 10 years later, an unknown character was compared to each of a set of 360 characters, and the best match was determined in less than one microsecond. The Reading Machine was done by Jacob Rabinow .
Reader is shown in a schematic view.
Side and Rear view of the DOFL Reader .