Patent ID: 7568628

Claim:
A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based image reader for collecting image data from a target, the CMOS based image reader comprising: a CMOS based image sensor array, the CMOS based image sensor array comprising a plurality of rows of pixels, each of the pixels of the CMOS based image sensor array being an active pixel comprising a pixel amplifier, a photosensitive region and an opaque shielded data storage region; a hand held housing encapsulating said image sensor array; a timing module in electrical communication with the CMOS based image sensor array, the timing module configured to simultaneously expose a full frame of pixels of the CMOS based image sensor array during an exposure period; an illumination module configured to illuminate the target during an illumination period, the illumination module in electrical communication with the timing module; a control module in electrical communication with the timing module and the illumination module, the control module configured to cause at least a portion of the exposure period to occur during the illumination period; wherein said CMOS based image sensor array is capable of being controlled so that exposure of pixels of a plurality of different rows of said CMOS based image sensor array is initiated simultaneously, and wherein said illumination period is less than a frame time of said CMOS based image reader; and a bar code processing module capable of identifying representations of bar code symbols in collected image data.