In 1973, Steve Sasson, 23 and fresh out of college, landed a job at Eastman Kodak in the apparatus division of the company’s Applied Research Department.
Soon he was assigned a seemingly routine task — to investigate the possibility of any practical use for a charged coupled device (C.C.D.).
“Hardly anybody knew I was working on this, because it wasn’t that big of a project,” Sasson told the New York Times in 2015. “It wasn’t secret. It was just a project to keep me from getting into trouble doing something else, I guess.”
Two years later, Sasson remarkably completed the protype for what would be the first self-contained, portable digital camera.
Steve Sasson, who is credited with inventing the first self-contained, portable digital camera.
“This was more than just a camera,” Sasson told the Times. “It was a photographic system to demonstrate the idea of an all-electronic camera that didn’t use film and didn’t use paper, and no consumables at all in the capturing and display of still photographic images.”
Sasson will deliver the 76th Steinmetz Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.The talk is free and open to the public. A mixer before the talk starts at 6:30.
Sasson will recount the development of his groundbreaking prototype—a battery-powered, handheld device that recorded digital images onto cassette tape. He will also discuss the foundational 1977 patent for the “electronic still camera,” which introduced the architecture still used in modern digital camera design. This prototype is widely recognized as a pivotal moment in the evolution of photography.
“We are fortunate to have Steven come to Union to share his story with us,” said Luke Dosiek, the William D. Williams Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “He is responsible for the change from film to digital that many of us experienced while we all take advantage of what it produced, and yet we don't hear his name every day. It should be an engaging talk.”
Sasson, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, spent 35 years at Eastman Kodak.
The holder of 10 U.S. patents, Sasson has received numerous honors for his work. He has been inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He is also the recipient of the British Royal Photographic Society’s Progress Medal.
In 2009, President Obama awarded Mr. Sasson the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a White House ceremony.
The first digital camera Sasson created in 1975 is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Sasson’s talk is presented in conjunction with the Schenectady section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
The Steinmetz Memorial Lecture series commemorates world-renowned engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923), professor of electrical engineering at Union from 1902 to 1913 and former president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Created in 1925, the series has brought dozens of eminent scientists, engineers and innovators to campus.