Patent ID: 6038052
Filing Date: 2000-03-14
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
A document scanner comprising:(I) a document support for supporting a document in position to be scanned;(II) an illumination system located adjacent to the document support for illuminating at least a portion of a supported document, said illumination system providing less than 1 watt of power;(III) a photosensitive medium for capturing an image of the document and generating image information;(IV) a retroreflective lens having an infinity F-number between F/3 and F/8, said retroreflective lens comprising at least one lens element with optical power and a reflective surface, and being positioned to (i) receive light emanating from the supported document propagated in a first direction, through at least one lens element of said retroreflective lens, (ii) reflect said light off said reflective surface in a second direction and (iii) propagate said light through the retroreflective lens in said second direction, towards said photosensitive medium, the document support, the photosensitive medium, and the retroreflective lens are in a fixed spatial relationship relative to one another and said document support and said photosensitive medium are being separated by a distance d which is less than 45 mm.