Patent ID: 8384885

Claim:
An apparatus for imaging a vein pattern of a finger having been located at a light irradiation area, the apparatus comprising: a light source including a plurality of light emitting devices for irradiating a finger; a controlling unit for controlling an amount of light that is irradiated from the plurality of light emitting devices; and an imaging unit for imaging a pattern including the vein pattern in accordance with the light upon the light being within propagated within the finger; wherein the plurality of light emitting devices is configured to be arranged along both a longitudinal direction and a latitudinal direction of the finger with a number of light emitting devices arranged along the latitudinal direction being smaller than a number of the light emitting devices arranged along the longitudinal direction, wherein the controlling unit is further arranged to control a respective amount of light irradiated from each of the plurality of light emitting devices in accordance with an intensity of a respective image corresponding to the light emitting device, and wherein the imaging unit is further arranged to image at least an image including the vein pattern along the longitudinal direction in accordance with the light for which the amount thereof is controlled by the controlling unit.