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Eugene F. Lally, laid the foundation for the
creation of digital cameras, by publishing a study on how still
photographs could be produced in the digital domain. Eugene was
connected with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. During the course of his
work, he discovered, that still photographs could be produced in the
digital domain, with the help of a mosaic photo sensor. His invention
was inspired by the need to send on board information to astronauts, who
were navigating on space missions. Still photographs of planet and stars
locations at the time of transit were then recorded at regular
intervals, by the mosaic array. Eugene’s work helped to provide extra
stadiametric know-how for landing and orbiting guidelines. This
conceptualization evolved into the primary design elements, required for
the invention of the first digital camera.
A company called Texas Instruments was credited with the ability to
design the first analog camera in the year 1972. But the actual facts of
its creation are still quite unclear. Steve Sasson, an engineer working
in Eastman Kodak, made the first credible attempt to build a digital
camera in 1973. His feat has been officially recorded in the history of
digital camera technology. He made use of the then, new solid-state CCD
chips, which were actually developed by Fairchild conductor. It is
desirable to describe Sasson’s creation in detail here, in order to
understand the evolution of the digital camera. His camera could record
black and white images to a cassette tape, weighed 3.6 kg and had a
resolution of ten thousand or 0.01 mega pixels. Records state that it
took twenty-three seconds, to catch the first image, in the year 1975.
Sasson’s camera was a prototype, which emerged from technical
experimentation. It was never intended for reproduction and still exists
in its original form.
Sony Mavica demonstrated the use of a hand held electronic camera in the
year1981. His efforts led to the creation, of the first magnetic video
camera. The first magnetic video camera was actually an analog camera
based on the small screen (television) technology, which recorded to a
two by two inch video floppy. It emerged as the first video movie
camera. The typical analog cameras hit the market in the year 1886, with
the Canon RC 701 launch. Canon had first given a demonstration of this
gadget in the 1984 Olympics, by printing its images in various
newspapers. Many handicaps like high cost, poor image quality, and a
paucity of affordable printers, kept his invention out of reach for the
general public. Only the media was able to use this technology
constructively, for large-scale transmissions and publicity.
The year 1988 ultimately hailed the
arrival of pure digital cameras. These devices recorded live images in
the form of computerized files. Fuji DS –1P was the first digital camera
which used a sixteen megabyte internal memory card and a battery to
capture visual data and store it in the form of memory. However, this
camera was never sold in the American markets.
The year 1991 goes down as a milestone in the history of digital
cameras. This year saw the arrival of the first commercial digital
camera in the form of Kodak DCS-100 paving the way for a long line of
SLR cameras by Kodak, which were further adapted to professional use.
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