Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith developed the charge-coupled device in 1969 while working at Bell Laboratories, producing the world's first solid-state video camera just a year later. For this they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009
Useful links
Here are some useful links about digital RAW image capture, sensor design, bayerpattern etc.
Kodak:
http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/business/ISS/supportdocs/ISOMeasurements.pdf
Adobe Systems:
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/pdfs/linear_gamma.pdf
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/extend.displayTab2.html
Dalsa:
http://www.teledynedalsa.com/corp/markets/CCD_vs_CMOS.aspx
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_pattern


