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 July 4, 1950

Brooklyn, New York,
United States

Nationality American

Occupation Electrical Engineer

Inventor

Known for Inventor 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
U.S. Patent 4,131,919 Patent –
Electronic Still camera

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.

External links
The Dawn of Digital Photography -
interview with Steven Sasson on the
invention of the digital camera
 Disruptive Innovation: The Story of the
First Digital Camera , lecture by Steven
Sasson at the Linda Hall Library
(October 26, 2011)

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Steven_Sasson&oldid=894105612"

Last edited 2 months ago by an ano…

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

otherwise noted.