Free Online Test Prep and Study Guides for College Admissions. Polaroid and Apple: Innovation Through Mental Invention. Steve Jobs admits to few idols.
But one is Edwin Land, the college dropout who invented the polarizing filters used in everything from car headlights to sunglasses. Land, of course, also invented the Polaroid Land Camera. It happened like this: One time when Land and his three-year-old daughter were in New Mexico, she asked why she couldn't immediately see a photograph that he had snapped.