World's first digital camera (prototype) from Kodak

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Anssi Krooks
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World's first digital camera (prototype) from Kodak

Post by Anssi Krooks »

This is not the first time I came up with this tidbit, but the first one with a picture taken with that particular camera, on the screen of tv though. Interesting stuff and the camera itself isn't much bigger than some newer Kodak bodies. ;)

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2008/05/08/ ... al-camera/
D1X, DCS PRO SLR/n, DCS 760, DCS 420c & Canon Pro70
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Post by NikonWeb »

Notice the tape recorder.

"The image took 23 seconds to record onto the cassette and another 23 seconds to read off a playback unit onto a television. Then it popped up on the screen."

Here's another story on the same camera and its inventor, Steven Sasson:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9261340/

And the patent, filed May 20, 1977:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars ... er=4131919

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Stan Disbrow
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Post by Stan Disbrow »

Hi,

I was on a team that incorporated a follow-on to this (from Kodak) onto a manufacturing line as a vision system for an automated parts-placing board-making machine. This was in late 1983 or early 1984 when I was with IBM.

The Kodak guys had mounted the imager into a Nikon F3 body with an umbilical cord to the processor by that time. The processor looked much more like this prototype than the later DSU used with the F3-equipped DCS. The imager was 1 MP and the proto-DSU used floppy discs by that point.

This was not the vision system, per se, but how they demo'd the idea and so got us to fork over large sums of cash for the bits to build into something much more industrial-looking than an F3! :P

My part in the whole scheme was to build up a protocol converter to interface the proto-DSU to our IBM 3270 based systems. I essentially replaced the floppy drive with an IBM 3279-G graphics terminal. Not that any of the end result looked either like a camera *or* a VDT! :P

This way, the automated board maker could 'see' if all the parts were in the proper places in the proper manner on the board and route bad ones to a repair station. It was a real time-saver, and so worth the dough spent on it - over $100k as I recall.

This was my personal introduction to digital imaging. ;)

Later!

Stan
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Re: World's first digital camera (prototype) from Kodak

Post by NikonWeb »

Another interesting piece written by Steve Sasson himself, published on Kodak's own web site:

http://stevesasson.pluggedin.kodak.com/ ... tem=687843

Image

Jarle
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