[1] Marie Van Brittan Brown's father was born in Massachusetts and her mother was from Pennsylvania.
[1] The invention consisted, at the door, of an electrically controlled lock, several lensed peepholes with covers, a vertically sliding video scanner (camera) and controlling motors, loudspeaker and microphone as well as associated electronics, filters, power supply, radio receiver and transmitter.
The camera was connected by radio to a television monitor mounted on a control panel inside the home.
The patent cited other inventors, including Edward D. Phinney and Thomas J. Reardon, as well as RCA's Closed Circuit Television Systems, Book I, pp.
[7][8] Marie was quoted in the New York Times as saying that with her invention "a woman alone could set off an alarm immediately by pressing a button, or if the system were installed in a doctor's office, it might prevent holdups by drug addicts.
Similarly Harris Hull's patent (US3,440,635) is for a radio press-button alarm which sends a coded signal to alert nearby receivers.
AT&T had promoted experimental video for telephony at the 1939 World's Fair, in the mid 1960s public videophone booths were set up in Grand Central Station.
Domestic entryway CCTV was limited by price, costing around $1,000 for a system, making it unsuitable for most single dwellings, although many new apartments had such a system, where the cost per unit was less (as they shared the entryway equipment) and was offset by the increased value of the apartments, and hence increased rent, and, in some cases, savings on door staff.