Marie Van Brittan Brown

This woman invented the first home security system. And never saw a dime.

Marie Van Brittan Brown was a nurse in Queens, NY.

Her shifts were long. Her neighborhood was dangerous. And the police were slow to respond.

So in 1966, she built her own solution.

With her husband, Albert Brown, an electronics technician, she filed a patent for a system she called: “Home Security System Utilizing Television Surveillance.”

It was the first closed-circuit home monitoring system ever invented.

Here’s what it included:
- Four peepholes at different heights
- A motorized sliding camera to view each one
- A microphone and speaker to talk to whoever was outside
- A monitor placed anywhere in the house
- A panic button to alert police
- A radio-controlled lock to open the door remotely
All in one integrated system.

The Browns were awarded the patent in 1969.

Marie even appeared in The New York Times that week.

And then… nothing.

No mass manufacturing. No licensing. No million-dollar exit.

Why? It was too expensive to produce.

And she was a Black woman inventor in a white, male tech world.

Still, her ideas spread.

Today, every Ring camera, SimpliSafe setup, and ADT console traces back to her design.