Patent ID: 8269845

Claim:
A process for the optical detection of objects moved at a conveying speed (v), characterized by: illuminating the object in a temporally consecutive manner with a sequence of at least two light pulses which exhibit different colors; taking images of the object during each light pulse with a monochromatic optical area sensor, comprising a plurality of sensor lines; reading out and temporarily storing at least as many lines (Z 5 , Z 15 . . . Z 55 ) of each image as there are different colors of the light pulses, wherein the read-out lines have a line pitch (d) relative to each other by which or by a multiple of which line pitch the projection (P) of the object onto the area sensor moves along between consecutive light pulses (R, G, B) and the line pitch (d) or a multiple thereof, respectively, is proportional to the distance (s, s′) for which the object moves along at the conveying speed (v) between consecutive light pulses; sequentially combining lines (Z 5 , Z 15 . . . Z 55 ) from images taken under illumination in different colors to form color lines (F 1 -F 6 ), with the lines (Z 5 , Z 15 . . . Z 55 ) combined with each other having the aforesaid line pitch (d) or a multiple thereof, respectively, relative to each other when they are being read out; and assembling the color lines (F 1 -F 6 ) into an overall color picture.