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Kodak's 1975 Digital Camera
pickens writes "The NY Times reports on a digital camera put together at Kodak's Elmgrove Plant labs in Rochester, NY during the winter of 1975 from a mishmash of lenses and computer parts and an old Super 8 movie camera that took 23 seconds to record a single digital image to its cassette deck and using a customized reader could display the image on an old black and white television. Called 'Film-less Photography,' it took a 'year of piecing together a bunch of new technology' to create the camera which ran off 'sixteen nickel cadmium batteries, a highly temperamental new type of CCD imaging area array, an a/d converter implementation stolen from a digital voltmeter.' When the team of technicians presented the camera to Kodak audiences they heard a barrage of curious questions including — 'Why would anyone ever want to view his or her pictures on a TV?'"
We would have got it sooner if someone in Kodak management had 'green-lighted' the posting of it rather than waiting for someone else to reinvent the approval ;-)
The date there is October 16, 2007
Well, at least slashdot's 3 years beats the 32 years it took Kodak to post the article on their website!
... and then they built the supercollider.
As with most engineering exercises, if your not intrigued by the novel and clever and application of new technology, there's little value to be seen by non-technical types. Hence observations such as the summary mentions 'Why would anyone ever want to view his or her pictures on a TV?"
What they should have been asking is "Is it possible to take photos of cats with this camera and superimpose poorly spelled captions over them?"
... and then they built the supercollider.
So what you're saying is that my flying car could have been available years ago if someone had only told the engineers to just "make it happen"?
I'm an engineer and I'm still waiting for someone to tell me to create flying cars. I also have a working prototype for a teleporter, but nobody has told me to create one, so it is just lying around in the basement.