Computer History Museum

Ochi, Shigeyuki oral history

Ochi-san was born in Manchuria in 1938, but moved back to Japan before he was one year old. He had an early interest in mathematics, especially as applied to communication. He attended Tokyo Institute of Technology because of their strength in communications. He graduated in 1962 with a BS in electrical engineering. Upon graduation, he joined Sony. At the time, Sony was focused on using bipolar transistors, but he read an RCA paper on MOS transistors and felt that was the technology of the future. He worked on MOS technology until 1970, at which time he switched his focus to CCD. It was a difficult technology, so many other companies stopped their development efforts in this area. Ochi-san believed it was important and so continued to pursue his goal of making a CCD-based camera. He succeeded in making a prototype version of such a camera in 1980, and a commercial version in 1985. That was the first camcorder.

Item Details

Date
2016-06-23 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102738181
Organization
Computer History Museum (Publisher)
People
Shigeyuki Ochi (Interviewee)
Doug Fairbairn (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Format
PDF
Credit line
Computer History Museum
Place of publication
Japan/Tokyo
Language
English
Acquisition number
X7652.2016
Subject
CCD, Sony
Archive collection
CHM Oral History collection
Archive hierarchy
Oral History collection