INVENTOR

Ray Dolby

1933 - 2013

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Ray Milton Dolby (; January 18, 1933 – September 12, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR, which has been said to have "transformed sound reproduction". In the 1950s he contributed to development of the video tape recorder while at Ampex, and in 1965 he founded Dolby Laboratories in London. There he invented and patented a method of noise reduction for use in analog recording which was widely adopted for the cassette tape. The company moved to California in 1976 and went on to develop audio and video formats for films, home video recorders, home theater, television broadcasts, and video streaming services. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Ray Dolby is the 266th most popular inventor (down from 244th in 2019), the 5,180th most popular biography from United States (down from 3,834th in 2019) and the 68th most popular American Inventor.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Ray Dolby ranks 266 out of 426Before him are Arthur Wynne, Michael S. Hart, Joseph-Armand Bombardier, Angelo Moriondo, Walter Zapp, and Gerald Bull. After him are Henri Fabre, Louis Lumière, Alexandre Alexeieff, John Barnard, Colin Archer, and Léon Gaumont.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1933, Ray Dolby ranks 248Before him are Jean Yanne, Chen Jingrun, Renée Taylor, Dennis Viollet, Tsuneko Okazaki, and Jiří Tichý. After him are Ruth Arnon, Vassilis Vassilikos, Haruo Remeliik, Mark Jones, Milena Hübschmannová, and Nicolae Rainea. Among people deceased in 2013, Ray Dolby ranks 219Before him are Arik Einstein, Hans Hass, Wadih El Safi, Franca Rame, Nílton de Sordi, and Jonathan Winters. After him are Mirko Kovač, Emilio Pericoli, Joanna Chmielewska, Angela Voigt, Georges Descrières, and Robert Byrne.

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Ray Dolby ranks 5,180 out of 20,380Before him are Doris Roberts (1925), Embeth Davidtz (1965), Stephen P. Synnott (1946), James Russell Lowell (1819), Sidney M. Gutierrez (1951), and Solange Knowles (1986). After him are Diahann Carroll (1935), Claire Danes (1979), Emily Deschanel (1976), Rhonda Fleming (1923), Jackson Showalter (1860), and Kate Walsh (1967).

Among INVENTORS In United States

Among inventors born in United States, Ray Dolby ranks 68Before him are Philo Farnsworth (1906), Charles Martin Hall (1863), Marcian Hoff (1937), George Pullman (1831), Glenn Curtiss (1878), and Michael S. Hart (1947). After him are Robert Cornelius (1809), Lester Allan Pelton (1829), Valerie Thomas (1943), Beulah Louise Henry (1888), Cyrus McCormick (1809), and Mark Rober (1980).