Color filter array inventor Bayer honored

[lonelyboy]

Color filter array inventor Bayer honored

November 17, 2009

Retired Kodak research scientist Bryce Bayer, whose invention of a color filter array enabled digital imaging sensors to capture color, is being honored this week 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.

[bmattock]

Originally Posted by lonelyboy

“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.

Except for the Foveon! However, kudos to Dr Bayer. Very cool stuff.

[Brian Sweeney]

The Kodak DCS, later named the DCS-100, with its KAF-1300 CCD did not use a Bayer-pattern Mosaic filter for color. The Kodak DCS-200 introduced in 1992 was the first commerical DSLR from Kodak to feature a Bayer Mosaic Filter. We bought a pair of DCS200's, one for color and the other for near-Infrared. I called Kodak to have the IR camera made, and got into an interesting conversation with their engineers on the Bayer filter. "Oh yeah, one of our Engineers came up with that". A 6-pixel wide border was being stripped from the image going through their TWAIN driver, and we wanted it back for the IR camera. It was used for color interpolation for the Bayer filter, but still stripped for the monochrome image. Wrote a RAW convertor to get it back.

A number of sensors use alternate schemes for the Mosaic filter, such as the one used in the Nikon Coolpix 950.

[yajhjd]

Originally Posted by Brian Sweeney

The Kodak DCS, later named the DCS-100, with its KAF-1300 CCD did not use a Bayer-pattern Mosaic filter for color. The Kodak DCS-200 introduced in 1992 was the first commerical DSLR from Kodak to feature a Bayer Mosaic Filter. We bought a pair of DCS200's, one for color and the other for near-Infrared. I called Kodak to have the IR camera made, and got into an interesting conversation with their engineers on the Bayer filter. "Oh yeah, one of our Engineers came up with that". A 6-pixel wide border was being stripped from the image going through their TWAIN driver, and we wanted it back for the IR camera. It was used for color interpolation for the Bayer filter, but still stripped for the monochrome image. Wrote a RAW convertor to get it back.

A number of sensors use alternate schemes for the Mosaic filter, such as the one used in the Nikon Coolpix 950.

Nice! I'll start saving up some scratch for this