Patent ID: 6837432

Claim:
A method of automatically cropping linear images of a moving object, said method comprising the steps of: (a) automatically capturing a linear range and intensity data map from an object moving with respect to a coordinate reference system, wherein said lenear range and intensity data map includes a sequence of data sets taken along a sequence of sample points along said object, and whereing each said data set includes a set of coordinates specifying the location of the sample point and an intensity value specifying the intensity of light reflected from said object at said sample point; (b) automatically analyzing the intensity values in said linear range and intensity data map captured in step (a) so as to determine the coordinates associated with a region of interest (ROI) on said object bearing object identifying information; (c) automatically capturing a linear image of said object moving within said coordinate reference system; (d) automatically converting said coordinates of the region of interest (ROI) determined in step (b) into a set of pixel indices corresponding to said region of interest present in said linear image captured in step (c); and (e) using said set of pixel indices determined in step (d) and said linear image captured in step (c), to automatically produce a cropped linear image of said object.