A Biography of the Pixel
E237522
"A Biography of the Pixel" is a nonfiction book by computer graphics pioneer Alvy Ray Smith that explores the history, science, and cultural impact of the pixel as the fundamental unit of digital imaging.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| A Biography of the Pixel canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2139756 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Biography of the Pixel Context triple: [Alvy Ray Smith, notableWork, A Biography of the Pixel]
-
A.
Pixel
Pixel is Google's flagship line of Android smartphones known for their clean software experience and advanced camera capabilities.
-
B.
Black and White in Color
Black and White in Color is a 1976 French-Côte d'Ivoire war comedy film satirizing French colonial attitudes during World War I in Africa and winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
-
C.
Retrospect for Life
"Retrospect for Life" is a reflective hip-hop track by Common, featuring Lauryn Hill, that grapples with the emotional and moral complexities surrounding an unplanned pregnancy and abortion.
-
D.
Parallax
"Parallax" is a track from the collaborative classical-bluegrass album "The Goat Rodeo Sessions," featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile.
-
E.
The Blueprint
The Blueprint is a critically acclaimed 2001 studio album by Jay-Z, widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential hip-hop records of all time.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: A Biography of the Pixel Target entity description: "A Biography of the Pixel" is a nonfiction book by computer graphics pioneer Alvy Ray Smith that explores the history, science, and cultural impact of the pixel as the fundamental unit of digital imaging.
-
A.
Pixels
Pixels is a 2015 science fiction comedy film in which classic video game characters attack Earth, prompting former arcade champions to defend the planet.
-
B.
Pixel
Pixel is Google's flagship line of Android smartphones known for their clean software experience and advanced camera capabilities.
-
C.
Black and White in Color
Black and White in Color is a 1976 French-Côte d'Ivoire war comedy film satirizing French colonial attitudes during World War I in Africa and winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
-
D.
Retrospect for Life
"Retrospect for Life" is a reflective hip-hop track by Common, featuring Lauryn Hill, that grapples with the emotional and moral complexities surrounding an unplanned pregnancy and abortion.
-
E.
Parallax
"Parallax" is a track from the collaborative classical-bluegrass album "The Goat Rodeo Sessions," featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
nonfiction book ⓘ |
| author | Alvy Ray Smith ⓘ |
| countryOfPublication |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| describes |
development of digital cinema
ⓘ
role of pixels in modern media ⓘ transition from analog to digital images ⓘ |
| explores |
cultural impact of digital images
ⓘ
history of digital image technologies ⓘ mathematical foundations of digital imaging ⓘ science of the pixel ⓘ |
| genre |
history of science
ⓘ
technology history ⓘ |
| hasChapterTopic |
color representation
ⓘ
computer animation ⓘ digital photography ⓘ image compression ⓘ sampling theory ⓘ |
| hasCoverType | hardcover ⓘ |
| hasDeweyDecimalClassification | 006.6 ⓘ |
| hasForm | monograph ⓘ |
| hasLCCClassification | T385 ⓘ |
| hasPageCount | 560 ⓘ |
| intendedAudience |
computer graphics professionals
ⓘ
general readers ⓘ historians of technology ⓘ technology enthusiasts ⓘ |
| isbn10 | 0262045490 ⓘ |
| isbn13 | 9780262045490 ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| medium |
ebook
ⓘ
print ⓘ |
| placeOfPublication | Cambridge, Massachusetts ⓘ |
| publicationDate | 2021 ⓘ |
| publisher |
MIT Press
ⓘ
surface form:
The MIT Press
|
| subject |
computer graphics pioneers
ⓘ
digital media ⓘ image representation ⓘ visual computing ⓘ |
| topic |
computer graphics
ⓘ
digital image processing ⓘ digital imaging ⓘ history of technology ⓘ pixel ⓘ |
| workOf | Alvy Ray Smith ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: A Biography of the Pixel Description of subject: "A Biography of the Pixel" is a nonfiction book by computer graphics pioneer Alvy Ray Smith that explores the history, science, and cultural impact of the pixel as the fundamental unit of digital imaging.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.