Looking at the timeline cited in this article, there appear to be many predecessors to the Kodak camera Sasson developed [0].
The title submitted to HN doesn’t match reality- Sasson’s was perhaps the first portable digital still camera, i.e. with onboard battery and storage. Presumably previous examples (like the Fairchild cameras depicted) needed a separate power supply and microcomputer for processing and storage.
Ultimately this feels like calling Tim B-L the “inventor” of the internet. We like to pick a name for credit but of course it’s always a more complicated story with many significant (perhaps more significant) contributors along the way.
The title submitted to HN doesn’t match reality- Sasson’s was perhaps the first portable digital still camera, i.e. with onboard battery and storage. Presumably previous examples (like the Fairchild cameras depicted) needed a separate power supply and microcomputer for processing and storage.
Ultimately this feels like calling Tim B-L the “inventor” of the internet. We like to pick a name for credit but of course it’s always a more complicated story with many significant (perhaps more significant) contributors along the way.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20180612142523/http://www.digica...