Dorchester man Peter Noble MBE bags Technology & Engineering Emmy Award

Physicist and electronics engineer Peter Noble has won a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award following the 73rd National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) ceremony.

NATAS is dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry.

Peter Noble receiving the Queen's Award for Technology in 1974 by the Lord lieutenant of Dorset Sir Joseph Weld

Mr Noble, of Haylands Close, Poundbury won the extraordinary achievement during the recent NATAS event in New York, where he was honoured for his image and pixel work almost six decades ago, under the category Technology & Engineering Emmy Award.

He said: "I was so astonished and surprised.

"I thought it was a wind up by friends, so just had to check. I checked, and it was true.

"I'm humbled by the award, which is due to the work we carried out towards the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s."

An image sensor is action

Now 81, Mr Noble's award recognises his pioneering work for the development of an early image sensor array with a buried photodiode structure, which caused a major upheaval in broadcasting, industrial monitoring and many other fields.

An image sensor converts incoming light, or photons, into an electrical signal that can be viewed, analysed, and stored.

"My work resulted in the first publication of the digital image sensor anywhere in the world," he said.

"It's the basis of all image sensors used in mobile phones, cameras, video cameras, TV, and films - billions of them globally every year.

"John Logie-Baird invented television, on the same basis I 'invented' the basis for digital image sensing for current TV systems.

"It's taken an additional 30 years to develop the technology by hundreds of others to reach a stage where cameras of all types use the technology - including mobile phones, video and still cameras, and more."

Currently, Mr Noble is writing an anthology of the origins of image-sensor array with buried-photodiode structure, which features the original papers and includes alternative methods to achieve the same result.

He added: "Although I'm writing alternatives, my original methods prevailed.

"The Science Museum has the original papers, personal notes, and book, and the only known original chip of a 4,000-pixel array."

Adam Sharp, president of NATAS, said: "The Technology & Engineering Emmy Award was the first Emmy Award issued in 1949 and it laid the groundwork for all the other Emmys to come.

"We're extremely happy about honouring these prestigious recipients, where the intersection of innovation, technology and excitement in the future of television can be found."

Mr Noble's latest book, 421 - The Number of Critical Days, is published by Amazon.