Patent ID: 7255279

Claim:
A hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading system comprising: a hand-supportable housing; an image formation and detection subsystem having image formation optics for producing a field of view (FOV) upon an object to be imaged and a CMOS area-type image sensing array for automatically detecting imaged narrow-band illumination reflected off the object during an image-capture mode in which substantially all rows of said area-type image sensing array are enabled and when substantially all rows of pixels in said CMOS area-type image detection array are in a state of integration and have a common integration time, and (ii) producing a single frame of pixel data associated with a digital image of said object; a LED-based illumination subsystem having an LED illumination array for automatically producing a field of narrow-band illumination within said FOV during said image-capture mode, in response to the generation of an activation control signal; an automatic light exposure measurement and illumination control subsystem for automatically measuring the light exposure incident upon a central portion of said FOV, and for controlling the operation of said LED-based illumination subsystem during object illumination and imaging operations; an image capturing and buffering subsystem, for automatically capturing and buffering said single frame of pixel data associated with said digital image detected by said image formation and detection subsystem, wherein said single frame of pixel data contains a plurality of bytes of pixel data; wherein said image capturing and buffering subsystem includes a microprocessor, a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) buffer, an image buffer memory having addressable memory storage locations for buffering a single frame of pixel data associated with said digital image, and a system bus for operably coupling said microprocessor and said image buffer memory, wherein said CMOS area-type image sensing array is operably connected to said microprocessor through said FIFO buffer, and wherein, during each digital image capture cycle, the bytes of said single frame of pixel data are automatically mapped into the addressable memory storage locations of said image buffer memory; an image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem for automatically processing said digital image captured and buffered by said image capturing and buffering subsystem, and reading 1D and 2D bar code symbols represented in said captured and buffered digital image; an input/output subsystem for outputting processed image data to an external host system or other information receiving or responding device; and a system control subsystem for controlling or coordinating said subsystems.