There isn’t much known about the private life of nurse and inventor Marie Van Britten Brown, but on this day in 1969 she helped revolutionize home security systems. Along with her husband, Ms. Brown was issued a patent for a home security camera system that served as a precursor of the closed circuit camera systems used today.
Brown and her husband filed a patent in 1966 for the “Home security system utilizing television surveillance” which was made officials three years later. The system used four door peepholes, with the camera able to move about to each one and relay audio and video to a television monitor.
According to an interview with the New York Times, the Browns invented the system in response to the rash of crime in their Queens neighborhood.
Brown’s invention was also notable for having a remote control feature that could unlock a door once a visitor’s image and face has been recognized. The Times referred to the invention as the “audio-video alarm system,” and Brown said she wanted to feel safer when she was home alone.
Brown won an award from the National Scientists Committee (NSC) for the closed circuit home security camera system.
Brown died in February 1999 in her Queens home.
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