Patent ID: 8380291

Claim:
A portable handheld vein enhancing device, for use in imaging one or more subcutaneous blood vessels of a target surface, said portable handheld vein enhancing device comprising: a first laser configured to emit a beam of light comprising a first wavelength; one or more movable mirrors configured to selectively move to cause said beam of light from said first laser to be transmitted onto the target surface in a repeated or a non-repeated pattern; one or more photo detectors configured to detect said first wavelength of light after being reflected from the target surface, said reflected light creating a contrasted image formed by differential amounts of absorption and reflection, of said transmitted first wavelength of light, between blood in the one or more subcutaneous blood vessels and the surrounding tissue therein; said one or more photo detectors further configured to output a signal representing said contrasted image; a second laser configured to project a beam of visible light comprising a second wavelength, said second laser being positioned side-by-side and parallel with said first laser with a gap therebetween, with said projected beam of light from said second laser thereby lagging behind said light beam emitted from said first laser; wherein said one or more movable mirrors are further configured to selectively move said projected beam of light from said second laser onto the target surface in said repeated or said non-repeated pattern with said beam of light from said first laser; and wherein said second laser is further configured to be responsive to said signal outputted by said one or more photo detectors, said second laser thereby projecting said contrasted image, with a visually imperceptible offset between said emitted beam of said first laser and said projected beam of said second laser, to be in-focus and closely aligned on the target surface to overlay the one or more subcutaneous blood vessels therein, regardless of a distance of said portable handheld vein enhancing device from the target surface.