The other development is the invention of the CCD or charge-coupled device. The CCD became the heart of the digital camera and all modern video cameras. I have in my office three old pick-up tubes; these were vacuum tubes that were the heart of a television camera. One tube for each of the three primary colors--red, blue and green. The CCD would replace these and lead us to a generation of light weight, high performing and low cost cameras, from professional video cameras to cell phone cameras. The CCD converts the image into an electronic signal and replaces the old tubes. What is also especially nostalgic is that the CCD came from Bell Labs, the research lab that dates back to the founding of Bell Telephone and is responsible for numerous advances that have improved communications and made life more interesting. Once the CCD could record the image, think for a moment about the relatively "easy" step of converting this from light to electronic signal to digital information. Once digital, just like text and music, the video file (albeit a large file) could be edited and transmitted as digital data.
Read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8292372.stm
AND here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/science/07nobel.html?_r=1&hp
I believe all three of these men deserve this award. Fiber optics have been critical in producing information faster and faster, plus, without it we would have some 600 million miles of wire or some other material distrubuting our information. Fiber optics have revolutionized our information sharing process.
ReplyDeleteThe CCD has made old heavy cameras useless, while making less expensive, lighter cameras more available. The technology itself is impressive, but the multiple uses of it are equally impressive.Even if the technology was only usable for the Huble Telescope, I believe the Nobel Award would still be valid.