There is no doubt that the introduction of the first mobile phone was a huge milestone for global communication. However, another big leap in this area took place about 22 years ago. In May 1999, Japan was the launcher of the Kyocera VP-210. It was the first phone with a built-in camera that was sold commercially to the general public.
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Of course, the idea of combining a camera and a mobile phone is not new to Kyocera. In fact, there seems to be some confusion online as to which device was actually the first camera phone (more on that later).
Camera phone prototypes and experiments
Prior to the release of the Kyocera VP-210, there were many designs for mobile phones that had some sort of built-in camera. In 1993, Daniel A. Henderson built two prototypes of a “wireless photophone technology” device called Intellect. It was a portable product designed to wirelessly receive and display photos and videos in a message center. Both of these prototypes are now in the Smithsonian American History Museum.
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A few years later in 1995 Macworld There were articles in print magazines that imagined what Apple would build. According to Atlantic OceanApple originally shared the design of an unreleased video phone that combines the look of the company’s Newton PDA with a video camera and display.
In 1997, Philippe Kahn “MacGyvered” the first working camera phone. His wife was soon to give birth to their first child, and Khan wanted to take a photo and share it with family and friends immediately. So much Mercury News Announcement He has Casio QV-10 digital camera and Motorola StarTAC flip phone and laptop with LCD display. While his wife was in the hospital, Kahn quickly built a hardware and software interface that connects the camera and phone through a laptop.
Kahn ended this combo just in time for his wife to give birth. Khan’s first cell phone camera photo of his daughter Sophie can be seen above. Thanks to his work, he was able to quickly share the photo with 2,000 people.
The first camera phone was the Kyocera VP-210.
As mentioned earlier, Kyocera claims to have launched the first camera phone sold to the general public. Declaration of VP (or “Visual Phone”) 210 CNN May 1999. The phone has a 0.11MP camera and was able to take up to 20 photos before the onboard storage was full. It also has its own integrated stand for users to take their photos. A phone in Japan cost 40,000 yen (~$325 in 1999, about $521 now).
Samsung says the SCH-V200 is the first…
It took another year for other camera phones to go on sale. In June 2000, Samsung launched the SCH-V200 mobile phone in Korea. It can take 20 photos at 0.35MP resolution and can be viewed on the phone’s 1.5-inch TFT LCD. However, you cannot send photos directly to other people using the phone. For that I…