Editing Lenna (section)

== History ==
Before Lenna, the first use of a ''[[Playboy]]'' magazine image to illustrate image processing algorithms was in 1961. [[Larry Roberts (computer scientist)|Lawrence G. Roberts]] used two cropped six-bit grayscale [[Fax|facsimile scanned]] images from ''Playboy''{{'}}s July 1960 issue featuring [[Playboy Playmate|Playmate]] [[Teddi Smith]], in his master's thesis on [[Dithering|image dithering]] at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]].<ref>{{cite web
 |last=Roberts
 |first=Lawrence G.
 |date=1961
 |title=Picture Coding Using Pseudo-Random Noise
 |url=http://www.packet.cc/files/pic-code-noise.html
 |publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
 |access-date=2017-02-03
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060926134827/http://www.packet.cc/files/pic-code-noise.html
 |archive-date=2006-09-26
 }}</ref>

The Lenna image was originally intended for high resolution color image processing study. Its history was described in the May 2001 newsletter of the [[IEEE Professional Communication Society]], in an article by Jamie Hutchinson:<ref name=JH>{{cite journal
 |last=Hutchison
 |first=Jamie
 |date=2001
 |title=Culture, Communication, and an Information Age Madonna
 |url=http://www.lenna.org/pcs_mirror/may_june01.pdf
 |journal=IEEE Professional Communication Society Newsletter
 |volume=45
 |number=3
 |pages=1, 5–7
 |access-date=21 January 2019
 |archive-date=18 April 2019
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418221033/http://www.lenna.org/pcs_mirror/may_june01.pdf
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>
{{blockquote|Alexander Sawchuk estimates that it was in June or July of 1973 when he, then an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the [[University of Southern California]] Signal and Image Processing Institute (SIPI), along with a graduate student and the SIPI lab manager, was hurriedly searching the lab for a good image to scan for a colleague's conference paper. They got tired of their stock of usual test images, dull stuff dating back to television standards work in the early 1960s. They wanted something glossy to ensure good output dynamic range, and they wanted a human face. Just then, somebody happened to walk in with a recent issue of ''Playboy''.

The engineers tore away the top third of the centerfold so they could wrap it around the drum of their Muirhead [[wirephoto]] scanner, which they had outfitted with analog-to-digital converters (one each for the red, green, and blue channels) and a [[HP 2100|Hewlett Packard 2100]] minicomputer. The Muirhead had a fixed resolution of 100 lines per inch and the engineers wanted a 512×512 image, so they limited the scan to the top 5.12 inches of the picture, effectively cropping it at the subject's shoulders.}}
The image's reach was limited in the 1970s and 80s, which is reflected in it initially only appearing in [[.org]] domains, but in July 1991, the image featured on the cover of ''[[Optical Engineering (journal)|Optical Engineering]]'' alongside Peppers, another popular test image.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Pudding|first=The|title=Can Data Die? Tracking the Lenna Image|url=https://pudding.cool/2021/10/lenna|access-date=2022-02-02|website=The Pudding|language=en|archive-date=2 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102161154/https://pudding.cool/2021/10/lenna/|url-status=live}}</ref> This drew the attention of ''Playboy'' to the potential copyright infringement.<ref name=Thompson>{{cite journal |first=Brian J. |last=Thompson |date=1992 |title=Editorial: Copyright Problems |journal=[[Optical Engineering (journal)|Optical Engineering]] |volume=31 |number=1 |page=5 |doi=10.1117/12.60707 |bibcode=1992OptEn..31....5T |doi-access=free }}</ref> The peak of image hits on the internet was in 1995.<ref name=":0" /> The scan became one of the most used images in computer history.<ref name="PBN07">
{{cite web|date=1997|title=The Search for Lena: Discovering one Playmate's role in the history of the Internet|url=http://www.playboy.com/news/lena/lena.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970704201816/http://www.playboy.com/news/lena/lena.html|archive-date=July 4, 1997|access-date=December 20, 2012|work=Playboy Newsdesk|publisher=[[Playboy]]}}</ref> The use of the photo in electronic imaging has been described as "clearly one of the most important events in [its] history".<ref name="technologyreview zax 2012">{{cite web |last=Zax |first=David |date=16 August 2012 |title=A Playboy Model and Nanoscale Printing |url=http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428928/a-playboy-model-and-nanoscale-printing/ |access-date=24 September 2013 |work=[[MIT Technology Review]] |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924140908/http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428928/a-playboy-model-and-nanoscale-printing/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The image spread to over 100 different domains, particularly [[.com]] and [[.edu]].<ref name=":0" />

In a 1999 issue of ''[[IEEE Transactions on Image Processing]]'' "Lena" was used in three separate articles,<ref name="oleary">{{cite web
 |last=O'Leary
 |first=Dianne P.
 |date=June 25, 1999
 |title=But the instructor's attitude can't make the female student fail, can it?
 |url=http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/oleary/faculty/node8.html
 |work=Accessibility of Computer Science: A Reflection for Faculty Members
 |publisher=[[University of Maryland]], Department of Computer Science
 |access-date=October 26, 2013
 |archive-date=5 November 2015
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105072752/https://www.cs.umd.edu/users/oleary/faculty/node8.html
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> and the picture continued to appear in scientific journals throughout the beginning of the 21st century.<ref name="JH" />

Lenna is so widely accepted in the image processing community that Forsén was a guest at the 50th annual Conference of the [[Society for Imaging Science and Technology]] (IS&T) in 1997.<ref name="chuck">{{cite web
 |last=Rosenberg
 |first=Chuck
 |date=November 3, 2001
 |title=The Lenna Story: Imaging Experts Meet Lenna in Person
 |url=http://www.lenna.org/lenna_visit.html
 |publisher=[[Carnegie Mellon University]]
 |access-date=2017-02-03
 |archive-date=29 September 2018
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929001758/http://www.lenna.org/lenna_visit.html
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> In 2015, Lena Forsén was also guest of honor at the banquet of IEEE ICIP 2015.<ref>{{cite web
 |date=2015
 |title=ICIP 2015 Banquet & Awards Ceremony
 |url=http://www.icip2015.org/banquet.html
 |publisher=[[International Conference on Image Processing]]
 |access-date=11 March 2016
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112201031/http://icip2015.org/banquet.html
 |archive-date=12 January 2016
 
 }}</ref> After delivering a speech, she chaired the best paper award ceremony.

To explain why the image became a standard in the field, [[David C. Munson]], editor-in-chief of ''[[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers|IEEE]] Transactions on Image Processing'', stated that it was a good test image because of its detail, flat regions, shading, and texture. He also noted that "the Lena image is a picture of an attractive woman. It is not surprising that the (mostly male) image processing research community gravitated toward an image that they found attractive."<ref name=Munson>{{cite journal
 |last=Munson
 |first=David C. Jr.
 |date=1996
 |title=A Note on Lena
 |url=http://www.lenna.org/editor.html
 |journal=[[IEEE Transactions on Image Processing]]
 |volume=5
 |number=1
 |page=3
 |doi=10.1109/TIP.1996.8100841
 |bibcode=1996ITIP....5....3M
 |access-date=2017-02-03
 |doi-access=free
 |archive-date=12 April 2023
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412224205/http://www.lenna.org/editor.html
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

While ''Playboy'' often cracks down on illegal uses of its material and did initially send a notice to the publisher of ''[[Optical Engineering (journal)|Optical Engineering]]'' about its unauthorized use in that publication,<ref name=Thompson/> over time it has decided to overlook the wide use of Lena. Eileen Kent, VP of new media at ''Playboy'', said, "We decided we should exploit this, because it is a phenomenon."<ref name="Wired97">{{cite magazine
 |last=Brown
 |first=Janelle
 |date=May 20, 1997
 |title=Playmate Meets Geeks Who Made Her a Net Star
 |url=https://www.wired.com/1997/05/playmate-meets-geeks-who-made-her-a-net-star/
 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]
 |access-date=2017-02-03
 |archive-date=22 July 2023
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722102912/https://www.wired.com/1997/05/playmate-meets-geeks-who-made-her-a-net-star/
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>