Patent ID: 7584893
Filing Date: 2009-09-08
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A tunnel-type digital imaging system for use within retail shopping environments such as supermarkets, said tunnel-type digital imaging system comprising: a tunnel configuration arranged about a conveyor structure for transporting objects through said tunnel configuration; and an image capturing and processing subsystem embodied within said tunnel configuration, and supporting a 3D digital imaging volume above said conveyor structure and within said tunnel configuration, for capturing linear digital 1D images of objects transported through said 3D digital imaging volume; wherein said image capturing and processing subsystem includes a plurality of illumination and imaging subsystems, wherein each said illumination and imaging subsystem generates a light illumination beam and 3D field of view (FOV) that are projected into said 3D digital imaging volume for imaging of objects passing through said 3D digital imaging volume and generating linear digital 1D images of each said object intersecting with one or more of said 3D FOVs; and a digital image processing subsystem for processing said linear digital 1D images of objects passing through said 3D digital imaging volume; and a system control subsystem for controlling and/or orchestrating said illumination and imaging subsystems during system operation; wherein each said illumination and imaging subsystem includes one or more coherent light sources, and said plurality of light illumination beams are generated by said one or more coherent light sources; and wherein each said illumination and imaging subsystem further includes a despeckling mechanism for substantially reducing the coherence of said light illumination beam so as to substantially reduce speckle-pattern noise power observed in said captured linear digital 1D images.