Patent ID: 7513428

Claim:
An imaging device capable of detecting an image of a target object with reduced speckle-pattern noise, said imaging device comprising: at least one image detection array and image formation optics that provide a field of view corresponding to said at least one image detection array; at least one illumination module that produces planar light illumination that substantially overlaps the field of view corresponding to said image detection array, said at least one illumination module including at least one source of laser illumination producing laser illumination having a characteristic wavelength and being driven by a current level supplied to said source of laser illumination; and illumination control circuitry that modulates a current level supplied to said source of laser illumination so as to generate spectral components other than said characteristic wavelength so as to reduce the temporal coherence of laser illumination produced by said source of laser illumination so that, during each photo-integration time period of said image detection array, said target object is illuminated with a temporally coherent-reduced laser illumination and numerous substantially different time-varying speckle-noise patterns are produced at said image detection array over the photo-integration time period thereof; whereby said numerous substantially different time-varying speckle-noise patterns are detected at said image detection array over said photo-integration time period, and said detected speckle-noise patterns are temporally averaged at said image detection array during said photo-integration time period thereof, thereby reducing the power of speckle-pattern noise at said at least one image detection array.