Patent ID: 7738033

Claim:
An illumination device for a monitoring camera, the monitoring camera having an optical axis, the illumination device comprising: a plurality of light devices being arranged in a light device plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the monitoring camera with an x-axis and a y-axis extending perpendicular to the optical axis, each of the plurality of light devices having a light device axis; wherein the light device axes of each of the plurality of light devices arranged in the light device plane is oriented such that the light device axis has an angle of orientation, the angle of orientation being uniquely defined by two angular components including a first angle defined from the direction of the optical axis to the direction of the light device axis and a second angle measured from the direction of the x-axis to the direction of the light device axis, and, wherein each of the plurality of light devices are aligned and spaced, such that the angle of orientation of the light device axes of each of the plurality of light devices is uniquely defined by the first angle of 30° to 60° and the second angle in a range between 0° and 360°, the angle of orientation of any one of the plurality of light devices is different than the angle of orientation for each of the other of the plurality of light devices, none of the plurality of light devices has the second angle selected to be the same as the second angle of any of the other of the plurality of light devices, and each of the plurality of light devices has a respective nearest neighbor, wherein the second angle of each of the plurality of light devices is selected to be progressively larger than the respective clockwise nearest neighbor, starting from a first of the plurality of light devices having the second angle selected to be zero degrees to the last of the plurality of light devices having the second angle selected to be less than 360° .