These technologies were most actively advanced in the 1960s and early 1970s in the fields of strategic reconnaissance and medical electronics.
The term Digital ICE initially applied specifically to a proprietary technology developed by Kodak's Austin Development Center, formerly Applied Science Fiction (ASF), that automatically removes surface defects, such as dust and scratches, from scanned images.
The ICE technology works from within the scanner, so unlike the software-only solutions it does not alter any underlying details of the image.
For some positive films with white-colored fine structures in a dark background, their opaque areas may be removed or given a fuzzy edge.
LaserSoft Imaging released an infrared dust and scratch removal tool (iSRD - Infrared Smart Removal of Defects) in 2008, that allows Nikon's film scanners for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, as well as many scanners from other manufacturers to make high quality scans of Kodachrome slides.