Selfie sticks are considered by many to be a useful invention and by others to be an annoying fad. The only thing that is certain is that their inventor, Canadian Wayne Fromm, has become a millionaire.
They may have been banned from Apple conferences and many theme parks, but they continue to proliferate on street corners in the US and the rest of the world.
But who benefits from this? It's Canadian inventor Wayne Fromm, who is considered the father of the modern selfie stick.
The inspiration for this invention has been the subject of debate, but even Fromm himself admits that he wasn't the first to think of putting a camera on a stick. The original idea is said to belong to Hiroshi Ueda, an engineer at the Minolta camera company, who experimented with the original design in the 1980s.
So Fromm's claim to be the father of the selfie stick is not based on his first idea, but on his creation. "Ueda's idea was a failure in the 1980s, as it required a special type of camera, like the ones we have today," Fromm explains to Business Insider.
"Mine fits any camera, or any mobile phone. And it should not only hold the device, but also be easy to carry. The first selfie sticks were much more complicated than the ones we have now."
Fromm eventually filed for and received a U.S. patent for his selfie stick in 2005 and then brought it to market. Despite countless imitations, he has sold more than 1,000,000 units to date.
Source: iefimerida.gr
