Patent ID: 7544163

Claim:
An optical imaging system having good dynamic range comprising: a) a tunable light source configured to emit illumination light comprising a variable selected spectral output and a variable selected wavelength dependent intensity distribution, wherein configuring the illumination light comprises selectively adjusting illumination intensity and spectral output simultaneously at many wavelengths throughout the illumination light to selectively, and variably, decide which colors, or wavelengths, from a light source will be projected from the system, and how strong each of the wavelengths will be, wherein the light source is configured to independently increase or decrease the variable selected spectral output and the variable selected wavelength dependent intensity distribution as desired; b) an image sensor configured to detect light emanating from a target and transmit an image of the target to a processor; and, c) a controller operably connected to the light source, the image sensor and the processor, the controller containing computer-implemented programming that is configured to coordinate the light source, image sensor and processor such that the programming varies the selected spectral output and wavelength dependent intensity distribution of the illumination light to provide a compensatory illumination light configured to compensate for at least one of saturation, overexposure or underexposure in a specific wavelength distribution in the image without substantially changing acceptable wavelength distributions, and the computer-implemented programming is configured to combine data about the variation of the light source with data in the image to provide an expanded dynamic range system the dynamic range of the image sensor alone, and thereby to provide and expanded dynamic range image produced by the system, the expanded dynamic range image containing a greater dynamic range compared to an image limited to the dynamic range of the image senor.