John G. Linvill

John G. Linvill (August 8, 1919 – February 19, 2011) was an American professor (emeritus) of Electrical engineering at Stanford University, known for his pioneering work in higher education, integrated circuits and semiconductors, and for development of the Optacon reading machine for the blind.

He received his A.B. in mathematics in 1941 from William Jewell College, and his B.S., M.S., and Sc.D. from MIT in 1943, 1945, and 1949 respectively.

He worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1951 to 1955, when he joined the Stanford Electrical Engineering department. In 1969 he was appointed head of the EE department, and in 1979 he became Director of the Center for Integrated Systems at Stanford. His teaching and research concentrated on active circuits, transistors, and models of semiconductors.

In 1962, Dr. Linvill conceived the Optacon (Optical-to-Tactile Converter) as a means to allow his blind daughter, Candy, to read ordinary print. He sparked the technical development of the device, which required innovations in integrated circuit technology developed under his leadership at Stanford. In 1970 he, Jim Bliss, and others from Stanford and SRI co-founded Telesensory Systems (TSI) to manufacture and distribute the Optacon.

John Linvill was Chairman of the board of TSI, served on the boards of other Silicon Valley corporations, and led technical committees for the National Research Council, NASA, and the IEEE. He holds eleven U.S. patents.

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