CCTV

Patented in 1969, Marie Van Brittan Brown’s closed circuit television security consisted of a motorised camera and four peepholes. The camera could move between peepholes, and the resulting images were displayed on a monitor. Her invention was originally intended to provide individual home security, as police were slow to respond to calls in her New York borough, and became the framework for modern CCTV used for surveillance, crime prevention and traffic monitoring.