David H. Shepard
Life
Life
----

Shepard was born September 30, 1923, in [Milwaukee](/wiki/Milwaukee "Milwaukee"). His father died when he was 2 and his mother when he was 10\. His guardian was [Laurens Hammond](/wiki/Laurens_Hammond "Laurens Hammond") who invented the [Hammond organ](/wiki/Hammond_organ "Hammond organ").
He graduated in [electrical engineering](/wiki/Electrical_engineering "Electrical engineering") from [Cornell](/wiki/Cornell "Cornell") in 1945 and then [University of Michigan](/wiki/University_of_Michigan "University of Michigan") with a master's degree in mathematics in 1947\. He worked during [World War II](/wiki/World_War_II "World War II") for the Armed Forces Security Agency (now [National Security Agency](/wiki/National_Security_Agency "National Security Agency")) on [cryptanalysis](/wiki/Cryptanalysis "Cryptanalysis"), breaking Japanese codes. His nickname was "D\-Shep" and "Party Shep" After the war he built an [optical character recognition](/wiki/Optical_character_recognition "Optical character recognition") device (reading machine) in his attic with Harvey Cook Jr. called "Gismo". In 1952 he formed [Intelligent Machines Research Corporation](/wiki/Intelligent_Machines_Research_Corporation "Intelligent Machines Research Corporation") to commercialize the invention with William Lawless Jr. in [Arlington, Virginia](/wiki/Arlington%2C_Virginia "Arlington, Virginia").

[IBM](/wiki/IBM "IBM") licensed the machine, but never put it into production.
Shepard designed the Farrington B numeric font now used on most [credit cards](/wiki/Credit_card "Credit card"). Recognition was more reliable on a simple and open font, to avoid the effects of smearing at gasoline station pumps. Reading credit cards was the first major industry use of OCR, although today the information is read magnetically from the back of the cards.

In 1962 Shepard founded Cognitronics Corporation. In 1964 his patented "Conversation Machine" was the first to provide telephone [Interactive voice response](/wiki/Interactive_voice_response "Interactive voice response") access to computer stored data using [speech recognition](/wiki/Speech_recognition "Speech recognition"). The first words recognized were "yes" and "no".

Since the 1980s he worked on [high altitude wind power](/wiki/High_altitude_wind_power "High altitude wind power"), harnessing winds at high altitudes to generate power. He founded Sky WindPower Corporation with Australian Bryan William Roberts of the [University of Sydney](/wiki/University_of_Sydney "University of Sydney").
Shepard died in [San Diego](/wiki/San_Diego "San Diego") of [bronchiectasis](/wiki/Bronchiectasis "Bronchiectasis") on November 24, 2007, at the age of 84\.


What company did Shepard form to commercialize the 'Gismo' invention?