FOSDIC scanning for 1960 US Census. US Census Bureau technician monitoring the scanning of 1960 census questionnaires by FOSDIC (Film Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers). FOSDIC was first developed in 1953 for the USA's 1960 Census of Population and Housing. The equipment scanned reels of microfilmed census questionnaires to capture responses which were transferred to magnetic tape readable by computers. At the time, these machines were the latest in a series of machines used to record and collate census data, ranging from mechanical sorters and tabulators, through to modern electronic computers.