Sept. 17, 2007 – The inventor of the digital camera, Eastman Kodak Co. electrical engineer Steven Sasson, last week was inducted into the Consumer Electronics (CE) Hall of Fame by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the host of the annual CES trade shows.
“It is an incredible honor to be included in this group of contributors to the field of electronics, especially for something related to taking pictures,” Sasson said in a Sept. 14 press release.
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| The Kodak DC40 Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera was launched in 1995. |
The Kodak DC20 Digital Camera was introduced in 1996 as the company's first portable digital point-and-shoot. |
In 1975, Sasson began work on the first digital camera under Kodak. Instead of traditional film, the camera used solid state imagers and a charged coupled device (CCD). In 1978, the work was patented by Sasson and his supervisor, Gareth A. Lloyd.
Kodak did not release the technology to the consumer market until 1991. The Kodak Professional Digital Camera System (DCS) matched a 1.3-megapixel Kodak sensor with a Nikon F3 camera body.
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| Kodak launched the EasyShare C513 in July 2007 as the first EasyShare point-and-shoot with a CMOS sensor. |
Kodak digital cameras evolved over the years. In 1995, Kodak released the DC40 Point-and-Shoot Digital Camera with limited portability. The following year, the company released a full line of its first pocket-sized digital point-and-shoots, including the Kodak DC20 Digital Camera. In 1997, Kodak launched the Digital Science DC120 Zoom Digital Camera, its first digital point-and-shoot under $1,000.
Today, Kodak produces sensor technology, including full frame CCDs for outside SLR manufacturers, interline CCD imagers for non-SLR cameras, linear imagers for scanners, and CMOS imagers, including the recent Kodak EasyShare C513, the first pocket-sized point-and-shoot with a CMOS sensor.
“The thing to remember about the digital revolution in photography is that it changed how we take pictures. The most important aspect of photography, why we take pictures, remains the same. Our memories are our most important possessions, and the job of this or any other technology is to enable us to make these vital parts of our lives easier and even more valuable,” said Sasson.
The official CE Hall of Fame award ceremony will be held Oct. 14-17, 2007 in San Diego, Calif.
Images courtesy of Kodak.
