In the winter of 1975, Steven Sasson, a young engineer working in the Applied Research Lab at Kodak, tested a new device for the first time. Now known as the first true digital camera, it was cobbled together using left over parts he found in the lab. Thirty five years later President Obama awarded Sasson the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for his invention.

The camera was about the size of a breadbox and took 23 seconds to take a single black and white image, which was then stored on a cassette tape (see below). While the invention was far from the digital cameras we now use, it sparked a sea change in the way images are captured. Some argue that Sasson's invention was where digital photography begins. But to say that would be to neglect the most important part of Sasson' rudimentary camera, buried deep inside its scrap parts: the Charge Coupled-Device.

This is an extract from "Business Insider".  Click here to read the whole article and to see the first commercial digital camera, the "Mavica" by Minolta and the first DSLR, a Kodak-Nikon F3 hybrid. In 1991 it cost $30,000 and the storage device was a hard drive carried on the photographer's shoulder.