Marie Van Brittan Brown
A night-shift nurse in Queens patented the first home security system — camera, monitors, two-way audio, remote door lock. Ring and Nest are her idea with WiFi.
Marie Van Brittan Brown was born in 1922 in Jamaica, Queens, New York, and worked as a nurse. Her hours were long and irregular; her husband Albert, an electronics technician, was often away at night. In a neighborhood where police response was slow, she wanted to know who was knocking on the door — without opening it.
In 1966 she designed the answer, with Albert's technical assistance: a motorized camera that peered through four door peepholes set at different heights, feeding video to television monitors inside — a closed-circuit television security system. Two-way microphones let her question a visitor; a remote control unlocked the door from a safe distance; an emergency button alarmed police or security.
The patent — filed in 1966, granted in 1969 — was reported in The New York Times, and Brown received an award from the National Scientists Committee. Her invention has been cited in 32 subsequent patents, and its architecture — camera at the door, screen inside, two-way audio, remote unlock — is precisely what Ring, Nest and every video doorbell sell today.
Why You Should Know Them
Tens of millions of homes now have a camera at the front door. The blueprint was drawn by a Black nurse in 1966 Queens who simply wanted to answer her door safely — and her name appears on almost none of the products built on it.