Patent ID: 8351089

Claim:
A system for capturing an image of an optical code located at a region of interest in a document, the system comprising: a support for the document; source of light arranged to illuminate at least part of the document, the source of light being arranged to illuminate the part of the document uniformly in first and second regions at opposite side margins of the document and in a third region comprising a band joining the side margins, such that the source of light is arranged to illuminate the part of the document in an “H” shape; a mount for supporting an image device at a position spaced from the document; a trigger for activating the imaging device to capture an image of the region of interest; means for automatically moving the mount and operating the trigger in dependence upon at least one coordinate identifying the region of interest, the coordinate being contained in a label stored in document parameters; and a decoder for decoding the captured image, to read the optical code, wherein the source of light comprises first, second and third elongate light arrays, arranged to illuminate uniformly respective first, second and third regions of the document, and each light array is independently movable so that the relative amounts of illumination of the three regions of the document can be controlled.