Patent ID: 7104455

Claim:
A planar light illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based system comprising: a system housing having first, second and third light transmission apertures linearly aligned with and optically isolated from each other, and said third light transmission aperture being disposed between said first and second light transmission apertures; an area-type image formation and detection module disposed in system housing, and having image forming optics with a field of view projectable through said third light transmission aperture and within a 3-D scanning region in which an object is present during object illumination and imaging operations; a pair of planar light illumination arrays (PLIAs) disposed in said system housing, each said PLIA including a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged together in a linear manner and said PLIAs being arranged in relation to said area-type image formation and detection module, and for producing a pair of planar light illumination beams (PLIBs); and a pair of planar light beam folding/sweeping mirrors for folding and sweeping said pair of PLIBs so that the optical paths of said PLIBs are oriented in an imaging direction that is coplanar with a section of said field of view of said area-type image formation and detection module as said PLIBs are swept through the 3-D scanning region during object illumination and imaging operations so that thee object can be simultaneously illuminated by said PLIBs and imaged within said field of view of said area-type image formation and detection module, whereby a series of linear images of said object are sequentially detected by said area-type image formation and detection module over the photo-integration time period thereof so as to construct a two-dimensional image of said object.