Kodak got a major honor from an engineering society this week for its early work on digital camera technology.
The brief ceremony took place at the Kodak Center on West Ridge Road on Tuesday, with a plaque installed, and Eastman Kodak being recognized for developing the first hand-held solid state still camera in 1975.
Steve Sasson was instrumental in developing that first digital camera for Kodak. He was traveling this week, and could not be at the ceremony, but was mentioned often for his work on the project as a young engineer.
The plaque that was put up on a column in the main lobby area came from the IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, which noted that the early digital technology developed at Kodak helped lead to a revolution in how images are captured and shared.
Terry Taber is Kodak’s Chief Technical officer. He said that the company’s early work on capturing digital imaging can be seen in a variety of applications today, including those popular Zoom meetings so many people have used in the last couple of years due to COVID-19.
“During the pandemic, how many people realized, ‘you know what, I can send my video anywhere in the world,’ said Taber. “And that was enabled by digital capture, digital video, transmission of that digital data through the internet and other means.”
Of course, Kodak has often been criticized for being slow to push for production of digital products while film was still making a lot of money.
Also at Tuesday’s ceremony, Jim Schueckler, a former Kodak technician, and later an engineer, reminisced about those early days, working with Sasson on the nascent digital camera. Schueckler said that some of the executives at Kodak weren’t too enthusiastic about the new technology at the time.
“Steve was making a presentation to some high level management, and he said, ‘this technology could someday eliminate film.’, said Schueckler. “And there was a big silence in the room…the executives thinking, ‘what do you mean, we don’t want that to happen.’ So it took a long time for the technology to get out.”
But Taber, who joined Kodak in 1980, said that it often takes time for disruptive technologies to take hold, and in fact, Kodak still makes motion picture film and some other film products.
But today, the company is focused on high-end digital printing, advanced materials and chemicals.
