Innovation is the catalyst for progress.
This is true for technology, the arts, and spirituality.

Take great innovators such as Moses, Jesus Christ or Buddha, and consider their advancements to our humanity. Listen to great innovators such as Bach, Mozart, Debussy, or Coltrane and hear how they forever changed the way we hear music.

In the worlds of technology, consider the Wright Brothers and Flight, the Microprocessor, the Internet, the Web, or the Camera-Phone and see how they’ve changed our daily lives.

Innovation and innovators pace the progress of humanity.

History
Consider this to be the start of a "small virtual museum" containing some of the little bits of history about Philippe Kahn and his companies.

First ever camera-phone picture Shared, June 11th, 1997

The above birth photo of Sophie Lee Kahn, was taken by Philippe Kahn, Dad, at the maternity. This was the first complete end-to-end solution for instant visual communications. About 2000 "friends and family" received the pictures.

This preceded the first commercial implementation commercialized by J-Phone in Japan in 2000. Philippe Kahn's vision and architecture was made public by Wired Magazine in the "Big Picture" in 2000

This was the first Instant Wireless ephoto taken in North America, powered by LightSurf Technologies.

First ever camera-phone public picture

The above photo of Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of DEMO Conferences, was taken by Philippe Kahn at DEMOmobile 2000, as LightSurf Technologies revealed its instant wireless digital photography technology.

This was the first Instant Wireless ephoto taken in North America, powered by LightSurf Technologies.

Posted on Friday, August 12 2005
Copied from the LightSurf website

September 7, 2000
Philippe Kahn Demonstrates Instant Wireless Digital Photography, Powered By LightSurf

LightSurf Reveals the First Application of Its Wireless Visual Communications Technology

PASADENA, Calif. - September 7, 2000 - Philippe Kahn, founder and CEO of LightSurf Technologies Inc., demonstrated the company's instant wireless digital photography technology today at the DEMOmobile 2000 conference.

Kahn appeared on stage holding a next generation, ultra-portable wireless phone attached to the world's smallest digital camera, designed by LightSurf. Kahn then snapped a digital photo and transmitted the image wirelessly to a web site in a matter of seconds. Operating without cables or wires, the tightly integrated camera and phone captured, previewed and sent the image to the Internet.

The demonstration, a first in North America, showcased LightSurf's complete end-to-end infrastructure solution for instant wireless digital photography. The solution includes photo-enabled mobile devices designed by LightSurf, patent-pending wireless acceleration technology and back-end imaging servers.

LightSurf's technology can be integrated into an array of wireless mobile devices and wireline products, including cell phones, PDAs, PCs and even automobiles. The company's back-end image management system consists of a massively scaleable
e-commerce and intelligent storage infrastructure that can receive, store, share and transmit billions of digital images simultaneously.

LightSurf is developing, deploying and managing visual communications solutions for a broad range of customers and applications, including messaging, voice annotation, streaming video and audio, and other forms of media. The company's technology is compatible with today's wireless networks and scalable to keep pace with the increases in speed and bandwidth of future wireless communications systems.

Recently, the company formed collaborative partnerships with Kodak (NYSE: EK) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to create and deliver wireless digital photography solutions for the mass market. The Kodak Picture Center Online is an example of LightSurf's back-end imaging infrastructure that is currently in commercial use managing millions of digital images for consumers across the United States.

"LightSurf is creating the technology, infrastructure, and services to drive wireless visual communications into the mainstream," said Philippe Kahn. "We have proven that today's networks and wireless infrastructure, coupled with our technology, can rapidly capture and send high-quality images anywhere in the world."

Market Opportunity

The market for wireless visual communications is expected to grow rapidly, as demand for mobile net access devices and photographic applications on the Internet expand. Photo sharing is already the most requested service on the Internet today, according to studies by AOL/Roper Starch and Morgan Stanley. InfoTrends, a leading market research group, forecasts that at least one billion digital images will be uploaded to online photo communities this year. This number will increase considerably due to the growth in film digitization and the use of digital cameras. On the hardware side, the Yankee Group predicts that 60 million net access cell phones will be in service by 2005.

"LightSurf's wireless digital photography technology is exciting because it is here now, on today's networks, not just a promise of things to come," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of DEMOmobile. "LightSurf is leading the visual communications arena. We expect to see many exciting applications and services in the coming year from LightSurf and their partners, including Motorola and Kodak."

LightSurf is the third company started by Kahn. He previously founded Starfish Software, a leading supplier of wireless infrastucture and synchronization solutions that was successfully acquired by Motorola in 1998. Kahn retained his position as CEO of Starfish, which is now a thriving independent subsidiary of Motorola. Prior to Starfish, Kahn founded Borland International, a leading provider of world-class software development tools.

Kahn, who was named by Byte Magazine as one of the Top 20 Most Important People in the history of the computer industry, is featured in the October 2000 issue of Wired discussing LightSurf and his plans for revolutionizing wireless visual communications.

About DEMOmobile
DEMOmobile is a conference focusing on the best of the new products and technologies designed to meet the needs of mobile professionals. DEMOmobile brings together leading analysts, venture backers, executives, product developers, technologists and journalists for a look ahead to the products and technologies that will shape the rapidly expanding mobile computing marketplace.

PictureMail Innovation Timeline, from LightSurf

LightSurf's PictureMail Innovation Timeline began in 1997 when Philippe Kahn devised a system for instantly sharing pictures of his newborn baby using a digital camera attached to a cellular phone. Since that time, LightSurf has been at the cutting edge of innovation: designing, deploying, integrating, and managing Multimedia Messaging solutions for trusted partners worldwide.

Posted on Sunday, January 23 2005
Web News from 2000!

The vision for the first camera-phone was formed in June 1997. Motorola worked with Philippe to build the first camera-phone. LightSurf designed, developed, and managed the service infrastructure and did the reference design for the hardware. This became a secret internal Motorola project. Sadly, later in 2001 Motorola cancelled the project which would have given them at least an 18 month lead on the industry. Mistakes happen!

Interestingly, the old Soviet KGB reconverted into an industrial information gathering organization, didn't miss a beat. Here is what they put on the web in 2000. So much for secrecy!

Фотографии с сотового телефона в Интернет?
13:56

Motorola и LightSurf работают над созданием цифровой камеры, которая будет подключаться к сотовому телефону, позволяя передавать изображение прямо в Интернет.
LightSurf сообщила, что цифровая камера, размером со спичечный коробок и позволяющая сохранять около 25 фотографий, находится все еще в стадии разработки. Для питания камера будет использовать аккумулятор сотового телефона.
Фотографии легко и удобно передаются в Интеренет через подключенный к камере сотовый телефон. Кроме того, можно запрограммировать
автоматическую передачу изображений через определенные промежутки времени на указанный Web-сайт.
Как сообщают разработчики, выход нового устройства ожидается не ранее следующего года.

По материалам: TwoMobile
Постоянная ссылка: Фотографии с сотового телефона в Интернет?

The original article can be found at
http://news.hpc.ru/news/news2000_09_22.shtml

Computer Related News from 1973!

"As a young aspiring mathematician, I had multiple jobs and that's how I became part of the Micral's history. The genius of a few engineers made the machine precede the Altair by 18 months. These were true pioneering days in the Personal Computing industry. That ultimately led me a decade later to build Borland a company built on leadership technology for professional development tools."

Computers

Micral

The Micral was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer based on a micro-processor, the Intel 8008. Thi Truong developed the computer and Philippe Kahn the software. Truong, founder and president of the French company R2E, created the Micral as a replacement for minicomputers in situations that didn´t require high performance. Selling for $1,750, the Micral never penetrated the U.S. market. In 1979, Truong sold Micral to Bull.

The original article can be found at
http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?year=1973