Current image sensors on cameras work by capturing a single color per pixel and ignoring the rest. Kodak hopes to change this in 2008 with prototypes of their new panchromatic equipped image sensors that stray away from the typical red green and blue by adding an extra monochrome pixel into the mix. This technique negatively impacts color reproduction, but increases sensitivity to light, a trade off that might seem worthy to some.
Now I never heard of this until I checked it out on Phone Boy’s blog this morning, but a Google search yields that this announcement is half a year old. That being said, the first prototypes are expected to come out in early 2008 and with rumors that Motorola is working with Kodak on a 5 megapixel cameraphone this should be a very interesting Mobile World Congress (aka 3GSM).
Hit up DP Review for more image samples provided by Kodak.