In the early 1930s, Johnson, then a high school science teacher in Michigan, invented an electronic test scoring machine that sensed pencil marks on a standardized form.
IBM bought the rights to Reynold's invention[1] and hired him as an engineer to work in their Endicott, New York laboratory.
In 1952, IBM sent Johnson to San Jose, California, to set up and manage its West Coast Laboratory.
Johnson was working with Sony on another project when he developed the prototype for a half-inch videocassette tape.
This technology was also used by the National Audubon Society to aid bird watchers with songbird identification.