Sunday, March 3, 2013

STEVEN SASSON DIGITAL CAMERA INVENTOR


Time for some history. Steven J. Sasson is an American electrical engineer and the inventor of the digital camera in 1975. This first digital camera above recorded a black-and-white image on a digital cassette tape! Commodore modified the cassette tape recorder as well and called it the Datasette. Commodore sold them under the model designations C2N or VIC 1530, designed for use with the VIC-20, C64 and PET and CBM 2000/3000/4000/8000/9000 models.
OK, back to the camera … this 8-pound monster captured the black-and-white image at a resolution of .01 megapixels, 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, yeah!
“You could see the silhouette of her hair,” Sasson said. But her face was a blur of static. 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 still works at Eastman Kodak Company and now works to protect the intellectual capital of his employer. Wikipedia writes, “On November 17, 2010, US President Barack Obama awarded Sasson the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. This is the highest honor awarded by the US government to scientists, engineers, and inventors.”


LOUIS DAGUERRE WHO INVENTED FIRST CAMERA

Louis Daguerre (Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre) was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera with an interest in lighting effects, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s.
Louis Daguerre regularly used a camera obscura as an aid to painting in perspective, and this led him think about ways to keep the image still. In 1826, he discovered the work of Joseph Niepce, and in 1829 began a partnership with him.
He formed a partnership with Joseph Niepce to improve upon the photography process Niepce had invented. Niepce, who died in 1833, produced the first photographic image, however, Niepce's photographs quickly faded.
After several years of experimentation, Louis Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself - the daguerreotype.
According to writer Robert Leggat,"Louis Daguerre made an important discovery by accident. In 1835, he put an exposed plate in his chemical cupboard, and some days later found, to his surprise, that the latent image had developed. Daguerre eventually concluded that this was due to the presence of mercury vapour from a broken thermometer. This important discovery that a latent image could be developed made it possible to reduce the exposure time from some eight hours to thirty minutes.
Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype process to the public on August 19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris.
In 1839, Louis Daguerre and NiĆ©pce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process.