Digital Imaging Pioneers Among The National Inventors Hall of Fame 2011 Inductees

PR Newswire: The National Inventors Hall of Fame has announced its 2011 Inductees. Digital imaging is well represented among the seven living inductees:

Eric Fossum

"CMOS Active Pixel Image Sensor - Eric Fossum, now at Dartmouth College, led the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that created the CMOS active pixel sensor camera-on-a-chip. Today, CMOS image sensors are a fixture in camera phones, and other applications include digital SLR cameras, embedded web-cams, automotive safety systems, swallowable pill cameras, toys and video games, and wireless video-security networks. Worldwide annual revenue for the technology is estimated to reach $6 billion in 2011."

Steve Sasson

"Digital Camera - In 1975, Kodak engineer Steve Sasson created a device that captured an image, converted it to an electronic signal, digitized the signal, and stored the image—the first digital camera. In 2008, 73% of Americans owned a digital camera and 34 million digital cameras were sold in the U.S., generating $7 billion in revenue. Virtually all of today's digital cameras rely on the same structure invented in 1975."

N. Joseph Woodland, Bernard Silver (1935-1963)

"First Optically Scanned Bar Code – Joe Woodland and Bernard Silver (deceased) invented the first optically scanned barcode, prompted in their work in 1948 after Silver overheard a food chain executive discussing his wish to capture product information at checkout. Today, the barcode has many applications, including tracking shipped packages, patient identification in hospitals, gift registries, and floor control in warehouses. It is estimated that five billion scans take place daily worldwide."

The induction ceremony will take place on May 4 at the historic Patent Office Building, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, D.C.