Marie Van Brittan Brown: Inventor of the Home Security System

Home security systems are gaining wild popularity across the world, helping people feel safer in their homes. Security systems vary widely, from simple door and window sensors and break-in detection to full-blown security cameras, monitors, and microphones. Historically, surveillance systems were expensive and used mostly by organizations with the need and budget for high levels of security. But in 1966, Marie Van Brittan Brown and her husband developed a closed-circuit home surveillance system for people to use in their homes.

Marie Van Brittan Brown built the foundation of the home security systems we know today. In 1969 in Jamaica, Queens, New York, Brown and her husband earned U.S. Patent #3,482,037 on a closed-circuit system that used door peepholes, cameras, microphones, monitors, and remote controls to allow someone in their home to check who was at their front door and respond accordingly. Her work paved the way for future inventors and the modern home security system.

A patent diagram for Brown’s home surveillance system

Marie Brown was a nurse and inventor and her husband was an electrician. With two children, irregular working hours, and a slow police response time, Brown wanted a way to secure her own home, so she built it. The system included a door with three peepholes for people of various heights and a remote-controlled camera that could slide up and down to see through each peephole. A mounted microphone and speaker allowed the person using it to have a conversation with someone outside without opening the door. A person in their home could use the system’s controls to see and talk to someone at the front door, and simply press a button to lock and unlock the door or alert the neighborhood or police.

Marie Van Brittan Brown saw a problem, took matters into her own hands, and built her own solution, increasing home and personal safety for millions of people, inspiring future inventors, and creating the spark for modern multi-billion dollar industries. She continued to live in Jamaica, Queens until her death in 1999.