Soon after retirement in 2000 a ShopBot computer controlled router was purchased for the shop.
I developed the first computer program that could calculate V-bit incised carving paths in real time for True-Type fonts or DXF files.
The resulting cut looks just like chip carving.
The key was the use of the medial axis transform to define the position and depth of cut. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/gina/medial.html
Named Tesarna Typesetter, it evolved with help from some CAD/CAM professionals into two commercial programs, VfontZ and VCarvZ.
And the Shopbot is now in San Diego where my son has rebuilt and greatly improved it.
Peter Stika, my Bohemian grandfather and farmer near Pilsen, Kansas had a tesarna (carpenter shop) where much of my time was spent early on.