Photo booths have been around for a lot longer than most people assume, ever since the days when the first caveman wedged himself into a rock crevice and had a caveman artist paint his likeness on the wall. That is to say, there were automatic cameras that photographed people for a dime since 1900.

When the booth part was added to the mix, it made for an instant top seller at fairs and arcades. Photo booths were especially popular in the 40s and 50s before the advent of Polaroid cameras, but even after instant photographic gratification was possible, booths were still a big draw.

Half the fun was cramming into the small space and making funny faces at the lens; the other half was the 3-minute (later 1-minute) wait for the pictures to be developed. For a small fee, the machine dispensed a strip of three small pictures of your zanier moments. Photo booths were especially popular with sweethearts who stole a few kisses in the relative privacy of the booth and had tangible evidence of their perfect love afterwards.

It wasn't long before technology allowed the photo booth industry to expand on the concept, like Atari's Compugraph Foto which generated life-sized portraits on computer paper. Other booths could produce caricatures based on your looks or add backgrounds and effects. The next step in the evolution was to print pictures with adhesive backing that doubled as stickers because labeling things with your name is simply not enough sometimes.