The Nobel Committee of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences proclaimed three men this morning as 'masters of light'.
This year's Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded "for groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibers for optical communication" ...and "for the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor".
Half of the 10 million Swedish crowns prize money goes to Charles K. Kao, whose work in the mid-60s enabling light to travel long distances through glass strands made the fiber optic cables we have today possible.
The second half of the prize is divided between Canadian Willard S. Boyle and American George E. Smith, who both worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and invented the so-called charge-coupled device semiconductor, better known to anyone that has ever looked at a digital camera spec list as a CCD.
In 1969 Boyle and Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (charge-coupled device).
The two researchers came up with the idea in just an hour of brainstorming, according to Boyle, who spoke during a press conference today. "It is amazing that a [CCD device] was created so quickly," said Joseph Nordgren, the chair of the Nobel Prize committee.
Half of the 10 million Swedish crowns prize money goes to Charles K. Kao, whose work in the mid-60s enabling light to travel long distances through glass strands made the fiber optic cables we have today possible.
The second half of the prize is divided between Canadian Willard S. Boyle and American George E. Smith, who both worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and invented the so-called charge-coupled device semiconductor, better known to anyone that has ever looked at a digital camera spec list as a CCD.
In 1969 Boyle and Smith invented the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor, a CCD (charge-coupled device).
The two researchers came up with the idea in just an hour of brainstorming, according to Boyle, who spoke during a press conference today. "It is amazing that a [CCD device] was created so quickly," said Joseph Nordgren, the chair of the Nobel Prize committee.
CCD technology makes use of the photoelectric effect, as theorized by Albert Einstein and for which he was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize. By this effect, light is transformed into electric signals. The challenge, when designing an image sensor, was to gather and read out the signals in a large number of image points, i.e. pixels, in a short time.
Often considered as the digital camera's electronic eye, CCD technology has revolutionized how images are collected from spacecraft, by telescopes, and in medical imaging ...effectively replacing the film camera in every aspect of photography.
The Nobel Prize committee concluded that the three scientists have helped shape the foundations of today’s networked society. ‘They have created many practical innovations for everyday life and provided new tools for scientific exploration,’ the committee said in a statement.
Often considered as the digital camera's electronic eye, CCD technology has revolutionized how images are collected from spacecraft, by telescopes, and in medical imaging ...effectively replacing the film camera in every aspect of photography.
The Nobel Prize committee concluded that the three scientists have helped shape the foundations of today’s networked society. ‘They have created many practical innovations for everyday life and provided new tools for scientific exploration,’ the committee said in a statement.
