This Is the Extraordinary True Story of the First Camera Phone | Short Film Showcase

[Music] The first commercially successful digital camera was a Natasha camera. When that came, I really realized, together with the cell phone, it becomes the poet of the 21st century. [Music] Link generator, know something in the email authenticator. I think it was a day like any of the other days; she was late. [Music] [Music] It's one of the few occurrences where you have a chance to speed and not be stopped. [Music]

"License and registration please." So, I explained to the officer that we were going to labor. The officer was funny; he said, "I heard that line before." This is 1997. The maternity doesn't have Wi-Fi; it doesn't exist yet. If I wanted to share pictures instantly, I needed to be able to talk to this phone physically and then use this Eureka moment.

"How's it going? Don't have the right cable? Give your soldering iron one down two flights of stairs and basically ripped up the fall speakerphone from the car." [Music]

I had a laptop on a desk that was next to the c-section operating table. It had a long wire that connected the camera to it, and the laptop was connected to the server that was my kitchen. I'm holding the baby in my left hand, and I'm holding the camera in the other one. It went out to about 2,000 people: friends, family, and business connections. Point, shoot, and share instantly!

I start getting emails: "How do you do that? The date says that your daughter was born like 15 minutes ago, and I just got that!"

'97, on that day, June 11, 1997, there were two births, and most important was my daughter, Sophie, obviously, and the camera phone. There’s a very profound impact of instant imagery and sharing imagery that is going to change society and the way people evolve. [Music] [Music]