Patent ID: 8174739

Claim:
A document scanning system, comprising: a camera for capturing images of a document; a lighting unit for illuminating the document, the lighting unit comprising: a first light illuminating the document from a first direction; and a second light concurrently illuminating the document from a second direction distinct from the first direction, wherein the first light and the second light are oriented such that light from one of the first light and the second light reflects toward the camera and light from the other of the first light and the second light reflects away from the camera; a lighting unit polarizer attached to one of the first and second lights of the lighting unit to polarize light from the one of the first and second lights of the lighting unit; a cradle for supporting the document in a fixed position relative to the camera to orient one of a plurality of pages of the document relative to the camera; and a camera polarizer attached to the camera, wherein the camera includes a shutter having a shutter speed that varies based on both an amount of light contributed by the lighting unit through the lighting unit polarizer and the camera polarizer, and a relative distance of the lighting unit from the document.