Patent ID: 8902353

Claim:
An imaging module for electro-optically imaging a target, comprising: an illuminating light assembly including an energizable illuminating light source for illuminating the target with illumination light for return from the target; an image capture assembly including an energizable solid-state imager for capturing return light from the target; a controller for energizing the imager during an exposure time period to capture the return light at a frame rate, for deenergizing the imager during a non-exposed time period, and for energizing the illuminating light source in the maging module not only during the exposure time period, but also during the non-exposed time period, to produce a plurality of illumination light pulses at an illumination rate that enables the human eye to perceive the illumination light pulses as substantially continuous, the illumination rate of at least one said illumination light pulse produced during the non-exposed time period being substantially independent and decoupled from the frame rate; and wherein the controller energizes the illuminating light source during the exposure time period to generate an initial illumination light pulse, and wherein the controller energizes the illuminating light source during the non-exposure time period as at least one additional illumination light pulse that successively follows the initial illumination light pulse, wherein both the rising edge and falling edge of the at least one additional illumination light pulse is within said non-exposure time period that is between the exposure time period to generate the initial illumination light pulse and the next exposure time period.