Patent ID: 6945463

Claim:
A scanner comprising: (a) a plurality of input channels, each said channel including a photodetector, each such channel providing data elements representing light impinging on the photodetector of such channel, each such channel including a signal processing and digitization circuit connected to the photodetector, wherein the signal processing and digitization circuit of each said channel is arranged to supply said data elements as transition data elements, each such transition data element including data denoting a transition as mark-to-space or space-to-mark and data denoting the duration of an interval between successive transitions; (b) means for exposing the photodetectors of said channels to light from objects to be scanned so that the light impinging on the photodetector of each channel represents an optical property of objects to be scanned at a series of points along a scanning path associated with such channel; (c) data stream means for accepting data elements from each channel and outputting a stream of data elements including data elements from said plurality of channels; and (d) a decoder operative to examine said stream of data elements and recover information denoted by the data elements in said stream; wherein said data stream means is operative to provide said stream of data elements so that series of data elements from different channels are provided in alternating sequence, with a series of data elements from one channel followed by another series of data elements from a different channel.