Patent ID: 8376218

Claim:
An apparatus for reading barcodes and sensing displacements, comprising: means for generating a broadband pulsed probe beam; means for Fourier-transformation mapping of the spectrum of said pulsed probe beam into a spatial domain directed at a target to be read based on its responsive optical signal; means for dispersive Fourier-transformation of said responsive optical signal to convert said responsive optical signal into a time-domain waveform; and means for detecting and analyzing said time-domain waveform to determine barcode patterns and/or displacements within the target being read; wherein said apparatus is configured for: (1) reading the target in an application selected from the group of application fields consisting of bioinformatics, tracking of medical specimens, tracking stem cell banks, sperm banks, and/or use in DNA sequence banks; (2) performing flow cytometry by detecting and/or measuring the motion and morphological features of particles within a fluid; and/or (3) reading the target which comprises reflective differences encoded within optical storage media formatted according to a desired storage protocol selected from the group of protocols used to encode CD, DVD, and Blu-ray discs.