Patent ID: 8389945

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a housing; an illumination source within the housing for providing illumination directed toward a target object; an imaging sensor having an array of photosensitive elements for capturing an image from the target object; a reflector within the housing; a light emitting diode (LED) operative to emit mostly invisible light within an invisible bandwidth, wherein the LED is configured to emit a first portion of the invisible light toward the target object directly and to emit a second portion of the invisible light toward the reflector, and wherein the reflector is configured to redirect at least some of the second portion of the invisible light toward the target object; a photodetector configured to detect returned invisible light from the target object to generate an electrical signal; and a controller configured to activate the illumination source for providing the illumination directed toward the target object for image capturing only if the electrical signal generated by the photodetector indicates that the returned invisible light from the target object is detected.