The National Inventors Hall of Fame announced its 2011 inductees today, recognizing the inventors of the sensor that enables cameras in cell phones, and the Universal Product Code (UPC) which we all know now as the bar code on our shopping items.
N. Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver will be recognized for their contribution to the invention of the UPC, the world’s most pervasive inventory tracking tool that has transformed the way consumers shop, and how businesses and retailers manage inventory.
Eric Fossum, now at Dartmouth College, led the team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that created the CMOS active pixel sensor camera-on-a-chip. CMOS image sensors are now used in camera phones, digital SLR cameras, embedded web-cams, automotive safety systems, toys and video games, and wireless video-security networks.
The induction ceremony will take place on 4 May at the historic Patent Office Building, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington, DC.
The location is significant because this year's list includes 29 inventors who will be recognized posthumously, most of whom would have submitted patent applications to the same building where they will now be honored.
Posthumous recognition will be given to Mary Anderson (1933-2008), the inventor of the windshield wiper, Frederick Ives (1856-1937) for color photography, Carleton Ellis (1876-1941), for margarine, and Henry M. Leland (1843-1932), for interchangeable parts for automobiles.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame accepts nominations for men and women whose work has changed society and improved the quality of life. The candidate's invention must be covered by a United States patent, and the work must have had a major impact on society, the public welfare, and the progress of science and the useful arts.
Founded in 1973 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Association, the Hall of Fame, located in the Madison Building on the campus of the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, will have 460 inductees after its 2011 induction.
