A dad invented the camera phone 28 years ago using a soldering iron during his daughters birth

It turns out that there’s a rather wholesome origin story behind the camera phone we now all carry in our pocket.

The invention came to be after one dad snapped a picture of his daughter just after she was born.

The new dad was determined to share the photo with friends and family quickly so he took matters into his own hands from the hospital.

Let’s take a look at how this early idea paved the way for the devices we all own today.

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This is how the camera phone was invented

Cast your mind back to 1997 when the phones on offer were simple and had one purpose – making a phone call.

French software engineer Philippe Kahn wanted to share the life-changing event of his daughter, Sophie, being born.

Using equipment he had in his car outside the hospital, the tech whiz came up with a way to connect a digital camera and his flip-phone to his web server and then send a link to the image to his contacts.

There’s even been a film created about the invention

According to Sloan Science and Film, there has been a film made about the event.

The clip shows Philippe and his wife Sonia awaiting the birth of Sophie in the delivery room while he connects the devices together with a soldering iron.

“It’s always the case that if it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done,” he told IEEE Spectrum when describing how he was working on the device from the hospital.

After capturing the image of his daughter Sophie at just minutes old, he then managed to upload the image and share it with over 2,000 people.

Bear in mind, that he had also been working on a web server photo system.

“After the baby, I spent the next month integrating the design, using a microcontroller, a CMOS sensor, and a phone,” he continued.

The image created a huge buzz and in 2016, it was even named as being one of the ‘top most influential photos of all time’.

After making the creation, Philippe put his skills to good use and founded a company called Lightsurf, where he created the ‘Picture-Mail’ camera phone.

So there we have it, the first camera phone photo was taken in the 90s – as one birth happened, so did another.

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