Patent ID: 7073718

Claim:
A planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based system comprising: a system housing having first, second and third light transmission apertures linearly aligned with and optically isolated from each other, and said third light transmission aperture being disposed between said first and second light transmission apertures; a linear image formation and detection module disposed in system housing, and having image formation optics with a field of view projectable through said third light transmission aperture and onto an object moving relative to said first, second and third light transmission apertures during object illumination and imaging operations; and a pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) disposed in said system housing, each said planar laser array (PLIA) including a plurality of laser diodes arranged together in a linear manner and said planar laser illumination arrays being arranged in relation to said linear image formation and detection module, and for producing a pair of planar laser illumination beams (PLIBs), and projecting said pair of stationary planar laser illumination beams through said first and second light transmission apertures and oriented such that the plane of said planar laser illumination beams is coplanar with the field of view of said linear image formation and detection module so that the object can be simultaneously illuminated by said planar laser illumination beams and imaged within said field of view of said linear image formation and detection module, whereby a series of linear images of said object are sequentially detected by said linear image formation and detection module as said object moves past first, second and third light transmission apertures, so that said series of linear images can be grabbed and buffered for subsequent use in constructing two-dimensional images of said object.