Video Game Pioneer Ralph Baer Inducted Into Inventors Hall Of Fame

The National Inventors Hall of Fame has inducted Ralph Baer, the video game console pioneer who in the 1960s and 70s led development of the technology that would become the Magnavox Odyssey. He's credited with ushering in a new period of home television entertainment. "People thought I was wasting my time and the company's money for that matter," Baer said. "There's no way anybody could have predicted how fast this industry would take off." This year, the Akron, Ohio-based Hall of Fame is recognizing him along with 15 other industrious figures whose inventions include GPS, electrothermal hydrazine thrusters for space propulsion, glass ceramics and Post-It notes. Baer's inventions also include the music and color-based electronic memory game Simon, interactive stuffed bears such as TV Teddy and odds and ends. These include the "Chat-Mat," which plays a recorded message when stepped on. He was also directly involved with the development of the first light-gun video games. Baer was born in 1922, but he's still running a consulting business.