This time last year, the January edition of IEEE Spectrum had a special report
on the "Top 11 Technologies of the Decade".
At number 10 was digital photography and this article by Tekla S. Perry includes
the story of how Steven Sasson, an electrical engineer at Eastman Kodak,
"became the first person to pick up a digital camera and take a picture" in December
1975.
See
http://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-el...er-of-pixels/0
The article includes a picture of Sasson holding that proof of concept camera and
another which shows the large circuit boards inside the camera. At its heart, the camera
employed a 100 by 100 pixel CCD developed by Fairchild Semiconductor.
The article includes an abridged history of Kodak's continual involvement in
digital photography and ends with a cautionary warning from Sasson himself.
Now that most of us no longer store photographs in the shoebox ...
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Steven Sasson
"How do you manage these images? How do you save them for 50 or 60 years, with format obsolescence, changing standards? Images are the only digital files that get more valuable the older they get."
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When one also considers that Kodak employed a peak of 143,800 people in 1988
and that it is down to 18,800 today, that is only 24 years later, then it is also
a cautionary tale not to underestimate what the digital economy will be like
in another 24 years from now.
What's that 
