Steven SassonBorn 4 Apr 1950.American electrical engineer and inventor who build the first digital camera while a relatively newly-hired worker at Kodak. His supervisor asked him to explore the application of an electronic charge-coupled device (CCD) as an image sensor in a camera. The experimental prototype he built was about the size of a toaster, and weighed 8 pounds. It took the first digital picture in Dec 1975, converted the image into an electronic signal that was digitized and stored on a cassette tape. Staying mired in the traditional celluloid photographic film that long been Kodak's mammoth business, it was not until 1996 that the company began selling affordable mass-market digital cameras. Sadly for the company, it was not only eclipsed by other digital camera manufacturers, but the technology change destroyed its photographic film business, even though it did accumulate 1,000 digital image patents.« |
