Inventors of fiber optics bag Physics Nobel Prize
Stockholm: The three Americans, who through their research pioneered the world of computerized images and the fast communication of internet, are the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics. The individual researches of Prof. Charles K. Kao, George E. Smith, and Prof. Willard S. Boyle on fibre-optics and transmitting signal through miles of glass made way for today's internet.
Charles K. Kao (75) was cited for discovering how to transmit light signals over long distances through glass fibres as thin as human hair. His 1966 breakthrough led to the creation of modern fibre-optic communication networks that carry voice, video and high-speed Internet data around the world.
Prof. Kao solved the problem of transmitting through miles of glass without having the glass itself absorb the signal. The company Corning Glass Works, built on his ideas to create the first fibres that could be used for large-scale long-distance communications, made today's Internet possible.
Willard S. Boyle, 85, and George E. Smith, 79, were honored for inventing the eye of the digital camera, a sensor able to transform light into a large number of pixels, the tiny points of colour that are the building blocks of every digital image.
Their charge-coupled device is found today in devices ranging from the cheapest point-and-shoot digital camera to robotic medical instruments equipped with video cameras that let surgeons perform delicate operations.
The three professors shared the Nobel Prize for developing fibre-optic cable and the sensor at the heart of digital cameras.
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