Patent ID: 7780088

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a) an illumination source emitting at least one light beam upon activation toward an illumination guide, the illumination source being in close proximity to said illumination guide; b) said illumination guide having first and second sides, the light beam from said illumination source being scattered between said first and second sides; and c) a textured surface located substantially along said first side of said illumination guide, the scattered light exiting said illumination guide from said textured surface to form a prescribed illumination pattern for imaging a target object; d) a discontinuous area surrounded by the textured surface on the illumination guide; and e) an imaging camera located behind the discontinuous area of the illumination guide to receive reflected scattered light from the target object through the discontinuous area, wherein a center ray of the field of view (FOV) of the imaging camera is substantially perpendicular to the textured surface of said first side of said illumination guide.