Patent ID: 8132731

Claim:
A digital image capture and processing system comprising: a housing having an imaging window with an illumination-focusing lens structure integrated within said imaging window; a printed circuit (PC) board mounted in said housing, and having a front surface, a rear surface, and a light transmission aperture formed centrally through said PC board and spatially aligned with said imaging window; an image formation and detection subsystem, disposed in said housing, and having (i) image formation optics for projecting a field of view (FOV) through said imaging window, outside said housing and upon an object, within said FOV, and (ii) an area-type image detection array, mounted on the rear side of said PC hoard, for forming and detecting 2D digital images of the object during object illumination and imaging operations; and a LED-based illumination subsystem, disposed in said housing, including a linear array of light emitting diodes (LEDs) mounted on the front surface of said PC board, adjacent said light transmission aperture and aligned with said illumination-focusing lens structure integrated within said imaging window, for producing a plurality of illumination beams which are transmitted through said illumination-focusing lens structure to generate a field of illumination within said FOV extending outside of said housing, so that illumination reflected and/or scattered off an object within said FOV is retransmitted through said imaging window and said light transmission aperture, and detected by said area-type image detection array.