Digital Camera News: Digital Camera Inventor Makes CE Hall of Fame, Duracell Pre-Charged NiMH Batteries

Inventor of the Digital Camera Inducted Into Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame

Steve Sasson, an electrical engineer at Eastman Kodak is one of 11 other honorees that will be inducted into the Consumer Electronics (CE) Hall of Fame this year. The Hall of Fame was created by the Consumer Electronics Association in 2000 to "recognize pioneers of the CE industry.".

In 1975, Steve Sasson started work to build a camera that used a CCD, solid-state electronics, and solid-state imagers to capture images. By 1978, he and his supervisor, Gareth Lloyd, were issued a patent for the digital camera.

The rest of the inductees are: Dr. Amar Bose, founder of Bose Corp.; Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft; John McDonald, former president of Casio USA; retailers Richard M. “Dick” Schulze, founder and chairman of Best Buy and William Crutchfield, founder of Crutchfield Corp.; the late attorney James Edward Day, who represented the consumer electronics industry in the landmark Betamax case; the team of Karlheinz Brandenberg, Dr. Dieter Seitzer and Dr. Heinz Gerhäuser who oversaw the development of the MP3 digital music format at the Fraunhofer Institute in Erlangen, Germany; and the late Art Weinberg, a journalist who reported on the industry.

Duracell Pre-Charged NiMH Rechargeables Hold Charge Longer

Duracell has launced a new line-up of NiMH rechargeable batteries. The new batteries take care of two downsides to purchaasing batteries. First, they come pre-charged, so you can drop them straight into your digital camera. Second, the new batteries also hold a charge longer than other NiMH batteries. If you've used NiMH batteries before, you have probably noticed that the charge level drops even when the batteries are just sitting in a drawer somewhere.

The new Pre-Charged Rechargeables have a suggested retail price of $12.99 for a four-pack. You should be able to find the batteries starting in September 2007 at "mass, drug, grocery and specialty stores". Duracell also has a full-range of chargers, from ones that give you a nice LED charge meter, to mini-chargers and 15 minute chargers.