Who invented emoticons? September 19th, 2007
You know, I really do not remember when I first saw the "smiley" characters. I suppose it was the first time I started using email in the 1980s. You know what I mean – the ubiquitous little string of three characters that when you twist your head on the side it looks like a smiling face.
Well, there was an inventor of this "smiley" character set. It was Professor Scott E Fahlman who first used the set of characters in an email message on September the 19th, 1982, at 11:42 am.
What Fahlman proposed at the time was that this set of characters could be used in an email message as "joke markers", a way to indicate the emotion to be found after reading the following text. Language experts say that this set of characters and other ones invented following this, can display a range of emotions in an email that would otherwise be difficult to portray. We now know these little images as "emoticons" – icons to show emotions.
44 Responses
jd71 Says:
From 2000, when I was asked about the 1982 date
So many people ask about this question… The first time I saw a side ways character set was in the 1960′s on paper tape… for instance an arrow to show how to put the tape in < --------<<<< that was a simple one but then again so was <<-- BOOT TAPE PDP-8E with private patched :) <------<<< That's one I did in 1968. But I did not invent it at that time I had people I knew that worked on electronics years before my introduction... It turns out personal signatures and codes were developed for the stock ticker and telegraph... My grand father used to tell me about the different signatures of the operators... its was also a good way to know who was sending the information... Especially during WWI... so I would have to say that the concept was know about 100 years ago... My grand dad's sign off was (!)-- I'm not going to tell you his name but if you get it you know his last name... The stop character and other abbreviations or mnemonics were used to shorten the task of coding in messages... especially when they were in code to begin with... Frequently these signatures and return messages were a form of authentication... for instance if you sent (!)-- >> Back you might get a reply as not yet… and assuming the person was a friend it was a short hand question if he got some from his new girl…. Now you knew you were safe… If something was wrong there was a don’t believe what I wrote I’m under duress code as well… OK, so I was making pictures in the 70′s full screen, with over prints on line printers… by them the smiley was well knows… I got to CMU in the early 70′s and most of the nerds had full lists of codes, could rattle them off, knew how to put pictures on punch cards, I used to do most of the door labels in punch cards in Science Hall now called wean, on IBM cards… You would punch the name out on one color card and back it with another… I can still do this with in a minute or two… I did the same thing with paper tape labels before… Well back then were using cards and teletype machines, as we got to graphics we left the smiles alone… In 1971 the arpa net and chat started, gee I hope non of those are still around and email, and finger and lot of other fun stuff… well by the time it came to 1982 and the public ebullition boards and a bad joke about spilled mercury…. Magically one guy invent the hole field… OK so they came up with it because it leaked on office CS general board… Now just so you know, I’m on the same archive several times and a lot of other people I know who knew about the little signing codes were their as well… and the please use a disclaimer code came about… But for one person to say the invented the field of these is like me claiming that I did because I have copies of paper tapes from the 1960′s with my name and a smiley face on them… Well then I have a lot of credits because I used to throw Frisbee pie tins around at my grandparents summer camp in Connecticut… and I worked on code that was looked at and used by a lot of people, and well it got into a lot of people who were building their own personal computers and one of them in CA, sold his to Paul Allen, and they turned it into DOS and I worked with the ALTO’s at CMU and with others got the XGP to work, so that laser printers, and I worked with some of the operating system with the Alto’s that Microsoft modeled windows after and apple using Microsoft used to help design its GUI… and I worked on getting other programs to work on the ALTO’s and VAX’s that became editing and publishing software… So I must have invent the whole field… At the time 99.9% of what we did we let be public, we were creating a field and guess what we all worked together… So in 1982… It was old hat I was working on control languages for Robots, and 3D graphics, computer vision, speech, sensors and general Robotics… So the answer is it developed, and the oldest public record is from 1982 except if you ask one of the few that were their and frankly most of us don’t care… Now back to work… Oh year and kilroy’s son is a friend and his dad was a dock inspector in WWII so you knew who inspected that box… Even though it seams that other made it famous….
Signed
Don’t want any fame
Mobile Phone Says:
So if it was created in 1982, was it still patented by Microsoft at all?
Yochai Says:
On NPR\’s \”Wait Wait Don\’t Tell Me\”: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=35 from April 4th, around minute 5:45 the answer is given: Abraham Lincoln.
jiennally Says:
vc
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