A sensor that gathers light
In 1969 Willard Boyle and George Smith at Bell Labs invented the CCD component. Inside it, light creates an electrical charge through the photoelectric effect explained by Albert Einstein, and the chip reads it out point by point. For this invention they received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics, together with Charles Kao, the father of optical fibre.
As big as a toaster
Sasson was tasked at Kodak with finding out whether a CCD could be used for taking photographs. He assembled a device the size of a toaster: a lens from a movie camera, a CCD chip, circuitry and a cassette tape recorder. Viewing the photo required a modified television set.
Kodak slept on it
Kodak's management feared that digital would destroy film sales, and shelved the invention. Digital cameras were later sold by other companies, the camera moved into the phone, and Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012. Sensors based on a similar principle are today found in every phone and security camera.