Masahiro Kitagawa, a professor of engineering science at Osaka University, clearly remembers the day when he first saw a computer and was overwhelmed by its power.
Kitagawa was a junior high school student when he saw a huge mainframe computer "paint" Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa on a screen. It was during an exhibition on the roof of a building not far from where the World Exposition in Osaka was held several years earlier.
"It was a display of what today we call ASCII art," the 47-year-old said. "But nonetheless, it was still a shock."