Steven Sasson

Steven J. Sasson (born July 4, 1950) is an American electrical engineer and the inventor of the first self-contained (portable) digital camera. Sasson is a 1972 (BS) and 1973 (MS) graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in electrical engineering.[1] He attended and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School.[2] He has worked for Eastman Kodak since shortly after his graduation from engineering school.[1]

Steven Sasson
Steve Sasson at Photokina 2010
Born (1950-07-04) July 4, 1950
Brooklyn, New York, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationElectrical Engineer
Inventor
Known forInventor of the first self-contained digital camera.

First self-contained digital camera

Steven Sasson invented the first self-contained digital camera at Eastman Kodak in 1975.[3] It weighed 8 pounds (3.6 kg) and had only 100 × 100 resolution (0.01 megapixels). The image was recorded onto a cassette tape and this process took 23 seconds. His camera took images in black-and-white. As he set out on his design project, what he envisioned for the future was a camera without mechanical moving parts (although his device did have moving parts, such as the tape drive).[4]

Sasson's patent claimed an arrangement that allowed the CCD to be read out quickly ("in real time") into a temporary buffer of random-access memory, and then written to storage at the lower speed of the storage device;[5] essentially all modern digital cameras still use such an arrangement. His was not the first camera that produced digital images, but was the first hand-held digital camera.[3] Earlier examples of digital cameras included some cameras used for satellite photography, experimental devices by Michael Francis Tompsett et al., and the commercial product and hobbyist camera called the Cromemco Cyclops.

Life and career

Sasson was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Ragnhild Tomine (Endresen) and John Vincent Sasson. His mother was Norwegian.[6] His invention began in 1975 with a broad assignment from his supervisor at Eastman Kodak Company, Gareth A. Lloyd: to attempt to build an electronic camera using a charge coupled device (CCD).[7] The resulting camera invention was awarded the U.S. patent number 4,131,919.[5]

Sasson continues to work for the Eastman Kodak Company, now working in an intellectual property protection role.[7]

On November 17, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama awarded Sasson the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.[8] This is the highest honor awarded by the US government to scientists, engineers, and inventors.[9] On September 6, 2012 The Royal Photographic Society awarded Sasson its Progress Medal and Honorary Fellowship "in recognition of any invention, research, publication or other contribution that has resulted in an important advance in the scientific or technological development of photography or imaging in the widest sense."[10]

Leica Camera AG honored Sasson by presenting to him a limited edition 18-megapixel Leica M9 Titanium camera at the Photokina 2010 trade show event.[11]

Sasson was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.

Patents
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References
  1. "The Rediff Interview/Steven J Sasson, inventor of the digital camera". Rediff.com India Limited. August 7, 2006. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
  2. "Alumni Hall of Fame".
  3. History of the digital camera and digital imaging, Digital Camera Museum
  4. Estrin, James (August 12, 2015). "Kodak's First Digital Moment". The New York Times.
  5. U.S. Patent 4,131,919 Patent – Electronic Still camera
  6. "Sydvesten: LOKAL- OG SLEKTSHISTORISK MAGASIN FOR ROGALAND" [Southwesterly: LOCAL AND BREAK HISTORICAL MAGAZINE FOR ROGALAND] (PDF). Rogaland-historie.no. 2008. p. 11. Retrieved 2015-08-12. Stevens morfar, Kristoffer (Chris) Endresen utvandret i 1921 fra Skudeneshavn til Brooklyn, der han slo seg ned somfisker. [Steven's grandfather, Kristoffer (Chris) Endresen, emigrated in 1921 from Skudenes Harbor to Brooklyn.]
  7. Dobbin, Ben (September 8, 2005). "Kodak engineer had revolutionary idea: the first digital camera". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
  8. "Obama awards the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation Ceremony: Speech Transcript". The Washington Post. 17 November 2010. Archived from the original on 10 February 2011.
  9. Schulman, Kori (November 17, 2010). "What You Missed: Tuesday Talk on The National MedalsLaureates of Science, Technology and Innovations". whitehouse.gov.
  10. RPS Progress Medal recipients
  11. "Photokina Daily" (PDF). Photokina-daily.com. 22 September 2008. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
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