Planar light illumination and imaging device with modulated coherent illumination that reduces speckle noise induced by coherent illumination
First Claim
1. An imaging device comprising:
- at least one imaging array and image formation optics that provide a field of view corresponding to said at least one imaging array;
at least one illumination module that produces planar light illumination that substantially overlaps the field of view corresponding to said imaging array, said at least one illumination module including at least one source of coherent illumination; and
illumination control circuitry that modulates the power level of illumination produced by said source of coherent illumination during each photo-integration time period of the imaging array to thereby reduce speckle noise in images captured by said at least one image array.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An imaging device including at least one imaging array and image formation optics that provide a field of view corresponding to the imaging array. At least one illumination module (which includes at least one source of coherent illumination) produces planar light illumination that substantially overlaps the field of view corresponding to the imaging array. Illumination control circuitry modulates the power level of illumination produced by the source of coherent illumination during each photo-integration time period of the imaging array to thereby reduce speckle noise in images captured by the imaging array. The illumination control circuitry preferably modulates the power level of illumination by controlling the number and/or duration of time periods corresponding to different power levels of illumination produced by the source of coherent illumination during each photo-integration time period of the imaging array. Moreover, the illumination control circuitry preferably controls number and/or duration of the time periods such that substantially constant energy is produced by the source of coherent illumination over the time periods (thereby enabling the different speckle patterns produced over the timer periods to optimally cancel each other out).
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. An imaging device comprising:
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at least one imaging array and image formation optics that provide a field of view corresponding to said at least one imaging array;
at least one illumination module that produces planar light illumination that substantially overlaps the field of view corresponding to said imaging array, said at least one illumination module including at least one source of coherent illumination; and
illumination control circuitry that modulates the power level of illumination produced by said source of coherent illumination during each photo-integration time period of the imaging array to thereby reduce speckle noise in images captured by said at least one image array. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for illuminating at least one imaging array and reducing speckle noise in images captured by said at least one image array, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing said at least one imaging array and image formation optics that provide a field of view corresponding to said at least one imaging array;
providing at least one illumination module that produces planar light illumination that substantially overlaps the field of view corresponding to said imaging array, said at least one illumination module including at least one source of coherent illumination; and
modulating the power level of illumination produced by said source of coherent illumination during each photo-integration time period of the imaging array to thereby reduce speckle noise in images captured by said at least one image array. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification