Kodak's Bryce Bayer honored by the Royal Photographic Society

kodak_logo.jpgKodak has just announced that Bryce Bayer, a retired Kodak researcher, will be receiving the Royal Photographic Society's prestigious Progress Medal award for the invention of the color filter array that is used on just about every digital camera or camera phone on the market today (also called the Bayer filter).  This unit allows single image sensor devices to capture color images, which otherwise would require the use of separate red, green and blue sensors. Bayer's "Color Imaging Array" was patented back in 1975, and is responsible for almost every digital color photograph we see today.

The Royal Photographic Society describes their Progress Medal award as "a recognition of any invention, research, publication or other contribution which has resulted in an important advance in the scientific or technological development of photography or imaging in the widest sense."

Below you will find the official Kodak press release.

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Retired Kodak Researcher Bryce Bayer Honored For Invention Enabling Color in Digital Imaging

Royal Photographic Presents Prestigious Progress Award


ROCHESTER, N.Y., Nov. 17 -- Retired Kodak research scientist Bryce Bayer, whose invention of a color filter array enabled digital imaging sensors to capture color, is today being honored by the Royal Photographic Society with its Progress Award at a ceremony in London. The Royal Photographic Society, founded in 1853 "to promote the art and science of photography," has chapters across the U.K. and ten regions around the world.

Bayer invented the color filter array that bears his name (the Bayer filter), which is incorporated into nearly every digital camera and camera phone on the market today. Described in U.S. Patent 3,971,065, "Color Imaging Array," filed in 1975, color filters are arranged in a checkerboard pattern to best match how people perceive images, and provide a highly detailed color image.

The Bayer Filter enables a single CCD or CMOS image sensor to capture color images that otherwise would require three separate sensors attached to a color beam splitter - a solution that would be large and expensive. The red, green, and blue colors of the Bayer filter are fabricated on top of the light-sensitive pixels as the image sensor is manufactured, a process pioneered by Kodak.

"The elegant color technology invented by Bryce Bayer is behind nearly every digital image captured today," said Dr. Terry Taber, Kodak Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "Bryce Bayer is very deserving of this prestigious recognition and all of us at Kodak join the Royal Photographic Society in saluting him."

In addition to his work on digital color imaging, Bayer developed widely cited algorithms for storing, improving, and printing digital images.

Bayer joins the growing list of Kodak researchers who have been honored by the imaging industry for their contributions to the technology and standards used in digital cameras.