Patent ID: 8878920

Claim:
An apparatus for viewing a surface comprising: an examining instrument, the examining instrument having an imaging path through which the surface is observed; a Xenon light source, the light source illuminating the surface; an imager, the imager detecting light reflected from the surface, and generating image signals; a camera control unit (CCU), the CCU processing the image signals; and a controller associated with the imager and CCU, the controller having software executing on the controller the controller including an exposure value EV i , EV i being used to control the output intensity of the light source by decrementing or incrementing the intensity of the light source output via at least two steps, wherein the controller decrements or increments the intensity of the light source output via a plurality of steps, wherein the intensity of the at least two steps is incremented or decremented by a predetermined percentage of the maximum light source output intensity, wherein the controller increments or decrements the output intensity of the light source via a power scan method the power scan method being able to increment or decrement the output intensity of the light source with a specified step ΔP scan , from P scan,min to P max , where P scan,min is less than P max , and P max is the maximum allowed light source output intensity, wherein the power scan method is enabled by a scan request method, the scan request method being able to detect a potential safety issue, wherein the controller compensates for the disadvantages of high frequency noise and slow response of a Xenon or a Xenon-like light source output by using the scan request method that involves a correlation method allowing for decrementing the output intensity with a specified step ΔP scan .