FOSDIC

Although the Census Bureau entered the computer age with the introduction of UNIVAC I in 1951, its data processing speed was hampered by the continued reliance upon punched cards.

Transferring questionnaire data to punch cards that UNIVAC "read" and stored on magnetic tape was a time-consuming process that remained relatively unchanged since the late nineteenth century.

At the Census Bureau, technicians used extremely sensitive photography equipment to convert these forms into microfilm.

Other applications included digitizing unemployment data, EPA Pollutant charts, NOAA Underwater current meter records and .

Postal Research Laboratory used a surplus FOSDIC system to make high-resolution images of dead-letter mail to create a data base for evaluating character-recognition techniques[2] The FOSDIC system was also use by the National Archives to digitize the images of Army enlistment records on punched card that were stored on 1,586 rolls of microfilm.