This Caltech/JPL Invention Changed Everything

It's hard to imagine the world without cameras in our pockets that can document our every experience. Social media is fueled by the photos and videos we capture and upload from our phone cameras. We Zoom and Facetime using these tiny cameras in our phones and computers to see and connect with people across the world. But did you know that a team of JPL researchers initially invented these cameras to go to space?

Meet Dr. Eric Fossum and Dr. Sabrina Kemeny, two of the JPL researchers who headed the team that engineered the CMOS image sensors, a technology whose incorporation is now so ubiquitous that we probably couldn't imagine a world without these tiny cameras in our pockets.

In this video produced by the Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships and Galaxy Media, follow the story of how tech transfer allowed the CMOS image sensor to go from initially eschewed NASA technology to something that we carry with us daily: