Patent ID: 7086594

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; a linear 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 onto an object moving relative to said first, second and third light transmission apertures during object illumination and imaging operations; and a pair of planar light illumination arrays (PLIAs) disposed on 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 linear image formation and detection module, and for producing a pair of stationary planar light illumination beams (PLIBs), and projecting said pair of stationary PLIBs through said first and second light transmission apertures and oriented such that the plane of said PLIBs is coplanar with the field of view of said linear image formation and detection module so that the object can be simultaneously illuminated by said stationary PLIBs and imaged within said field of view of said linear image formation and detection module, whereby a series of linear images of said object are sequentially detected by said linear image formation and detection module as said object moves past first, second and third light transmission apertures, so that said series of linear images can be grabbed and buffered for subsequent use in constructing two-dimensional images of said object.