Patent ID: 7248344

Claim:
An imaging system comprising: a light source arrangement directed to an object to be imaged; stationary receiving optics for receiving light reflected from the object to be imaged; a multi-region light detector for detecting light received from the receiving optics, wherein different regions of the light detector can be actuated separately; control means to synchronise the operation of the light source arrangement and the actuation of the light detector so that a region of the detector imaging the region of the object being illuminated by the light source is actuated synchronously with an allocated operation of the light source; and processing means for measuring the time of flight of light signals from the light source to the actuated portion of the detector, wherein the processing means is selectively operable to measure the time of flight from one of: (i) a signal received by an individual region of the detector, or (ii) a combined signal received in parallel from a sub-group of regions of the detector.