Wilson Markle

Canadian engineer (born 1938)
Wilson Markle
Born(1938-09-02)September 2, 1938
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DiedJuly 25, 2020(2020-07-25) (aged 81)
King, Ontario, Canada
OccupationEngineer
Engineering career
InstitutionsColorization Inc.
Significant advanceFilm colorization

Wilson Markle (September 2, 1938 – July 25, 2020) was a Canadian engineer who invented the film colorization process in 1970.[1] His first company, Image Transform, colored pictures from the Apollo space program to make a full-color television presentation for NASA.[1]

His method used computers to assign predetermined colors to shades of gray in each scene.

In 1983, he founded Colorization Inc., which was co-owned by Hal Roach Studios and International HRS Industries.[2] The word "colorization" later became a generic name.

Patents

An application for the first patent on the process was made by Colorization Inc. on 11 July 1983, listing Wilson Markle and Christopher Mitchell as inventors. It was issued on 1 December 1987 (US Patent 4710805).[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Coloring Old Movies: Foes See Red, Backers See Green - Chicago Tribune, 29 August 1986
  2. ^ COLORIZATION - The Museum of Broadcast Communications
  3. ^ US Patent 4710805 - Method of, and apparatus for, modifying luminance levels of a black and white video signal - WikiPatents, Inc.


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