The three Americans, who pioneered the world of computerized images and the fast communication through internet through their research, are the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics. Prof. Charles K. Kao and Prof. Willard S. Boyle shared the award for developing fibre-optic cable and the sensor at the heart of digital cameras.

Charles K. Kao (75) was cited for discovering how to transmit light signals over long distances through glass fibres as thin as human hair. His 1966 breakthrough led to the creation of modern fibre-optic communication networks that carry voice, video and high-speed Internet data around the world.

Prof. Kao solved the problem of transmitting through miles of glass without having the glass itself absorb the signal. Corning Glass Works built on his ideas to create the first fibres that could be used for large-scale long-distance communications, making today's Internet possible.

Willard S. Boyle, 85, and George E. Smith, 79, were honoured for inventing the eye of the digital camera, a sensor able to transform light into a large number of pixels, the tiny points of colour that are the building blocks of every digital image.

Their charge-coupled device is found today in devices ranging from the cheapest point-and-shoot digital camera to robotic medical instruments equipped with video cameras that let surgeons perform delicate operations.