[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 59 (Monday, May 15, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S4566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           COMMEMORATING DEVELOPMENT OF CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE

  Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the 
immediate consideration of S. Res. 478 submitted earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 478) commemorating the development of 
     the charge-coupled device.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I am pleased the Senate is poised to 
pass this resolution today honoring the invention of the charge-coupled 
device, or CCD, which has greatly improved our level of imaging 
technology.
  In 1969, Dr. Willard S. Boyle and Dr. George E. Smith worked together 
at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ, and created a basic design for a 
silicon-memory chip, known as a CCD. This breakthrough technology was 
crucial to advancing digital imaging technology and can be found in 
most imaging devices, including digital cameras and video recorders, 
space-based telescopes and satellites, and medical imaging devices.
  A CCD contains a light-sensitive chip that is able to store small 
amounts of charges in capacitors. A group of these capacitors create a 
pixel, which can be combined with other pixels to generate an image. 
The first CCD had just six pixels while the average camera now contains 
four to six million pixels. It is a credit to Dr. Boyle and Dr. Smith's 
innovation that this technology has been developed into the high 
resolution images we use in our every day lives.
  Each year, the National Academy of Engineering honors an engineer or 
engineers whose accomplishments have significantly bettered society by 
improving our quality of life, providing the ability to live freely and 
comfortably, and/or easing access to information. This year, the 
Academy has chosen to honor Dr. Boyle and Dr. Smith with the 
prestigious Charles Stark Draper Prize for their innovation in imaging 
technology and invention of the CCD.
  The National Inventors Hall of Fame has also chosen to commemorate 
Dr. Boyle and Dr. Smith's contributions to society by inducting them 
into their Hall of Fame. The National Inventors Hall of Fame was 
founded in 1973 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the 
National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations.
  I hope that my colleagues will join me in commemorating the 
contributions to our society and standard of living that CCD technology 
has made and congratulating Dr. Willard S. Boyle and Dr. George E. 
Smith for their justly deserved awards.
  Mr. FRIST. I ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the 
preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, 
and any statements related thereto be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 478) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 478

       Whereas charge-coupled device (commonly referred to as 
     ``CCD'') technology revolutionized imaging equipment and has 
     significantly affected society by improving quality of life 
     and the technological capabilities of everyday tools and 
     equipment;
       Whereas the CCD is widely used in technology, including 
     digital cameras, video recorders, space-based telescopes, 
     satellites, and medical imaging devices;
       Whereas Willard S. Boyle of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and 
     George E. Smith of New Barnegat, New Jersey, have advanced 
     society through their development of the CCD while working at 
     the Murray Hill, New Jersey, Bell Labs site in 1969; and
       Whereas Mr. Boyle and Mr. Smith have been awarded the 2006 
     Charles Stark Draper Prize by the National Academy of 
     Engineering and inducted into the Nation Inventors Hall of 
     Fame for their invention; Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate commemorates the development of 
     the charge-coupled device.

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