Marie Van Brittan Brown (1922-1999)
Inventor of home video monitoring for security (CCTV)
Home security systems have not always been common. Marie Van Brittan Brown, a nurse who lived in Queens, New York, devised a security system for her own home. As a nurse, she worked different hours than many people, and she and her children were often at home alone when her husband was at work.
She felt unsafe with high crime rates in her neighborhood, and she found that police were often unresponsive or slow to respond. She decided to create a device to help her feel more safe. In 1966, she created a system that allowed a camera to look out of the peephole in her door, with the video appearing on a monitor in her home. She and her husband worked together to refine the invention, adding a microphone to speak with the person at the door, as well as a button to contact police. Brown and her husband were awarded a patent for their invention in 1969. Many of the home security systems used today utilize elements of Marie Van Brittan Brown's original design! |
Learn more about Marie in this video clip!
MSNBC's 7 Days of Genius