Trivia
World’s first digital camera prototype was made by Steven Sasson, a Kodak researcher, in late 70s.
His invention began in 1975 with an assignment from his supervisor at Eastman Kodak Company, Gareth A. Lloyd.
Check out some snaps of the first digital camera
Sasson set about constructing the digital circuitry from scratch.
There were no images to look at until the entire prototype - weighing 8-pounds - was assembled.
In December 1975, Sasson and his chief technician persuaded a lab assistant to pose for them. The black-and-white image, captured at a resolution of .01 megapixels (10,000 pixels), took 23 seconds to record onto a digital cassette tape and another 23 seconds to read off a playback unit onto a television. Then it popped up on the screen.
“You could see the silhouette of her hair,” Sasson said. “She was less than happy with the photograph and left, saying “you need work”, he said. But Sasson already knew the solution: reversing a set of wires, the assistant’s face was restored.
Sasson, who believes Innovation best comes from people who really know nothing about the topic, describes how difficult it was in the beginning. “When I came to Kodak, I did not know much about cameras. When they asked me to experiment with the CCD (charge-coupled device), I did not know what to do.”
“I just tried an analogist’s way to take pictures, I was no photography expert. I could not have built a conventional camera. The ideal way is not to just look to the experts, look to people who have a passion to explore, and those who are not afraid of making mistakes,”
Check out an interview with Sasson
In 1978, Sasson and Lloyd were issued United States Patent for their digital camera.
Sasson, grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y, is still a Kodak employee.
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The first permanent photograph was an image produced in 1826, which required an 8-hour exposure!
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