Patent ID: 8654414

Claim:
An illumination system for a scanner, comprising: an array of visible light emitting diodes having a red light emitting diode, a blue light emitting diode and a green light emitting diode; an ultraviolet light emitting device for emitting light predominantly in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum, the array of the visible light emitting diodes and the ultraviolet light emitting device being positioned to illuminate an object to be scanned; and a controller operatively connected to the array of visible light emitting diodes and the ultraviolet light emitting device, wherein, during illuminating the object to be scanned, the controller is configured to operate the red, blue and green light emitting diodes in a sequence to illuminate the object being scanned and, during the sequence, the ultraviolet light emitting device is operated so that the ultraviolet light emitting device and at least one of the red light emitting diode, the blue light emitting diode and the green light emitting diode are simultaneously operated to illuminate the object being scanned.