HAND-SUPPORTABLE PLANAR LASER ILLUMINATION AND IMAGING (PLIIM) DEVICE EMPLOYING A PAIR OF LINEAR LASER DIODE ARRAYS MOUNTED ABOUT AN AREA IMAGE DETECTION ARRAY, FOR ILLUMINATING AN OBJECT TO BE IMAGED WITH A PLURALITY OF OPTICALLY-COMBINED SPATIALLY-INCOHERENT PLANAR LASER ILLUMINATION BEAMS (PLIBS) SCANNED THROUGH THE FIELD OF VIEW (FOV) OF SAID AREA IMAGE DETECTION ARRAY, AND REDUCING THE SPECKLE-PATTERN NOISE POWER IN DETECTED 2-D IMAGES BY TEMPORALLY-AVERAGING DETECTED SPECKLE-NOISE PATTERNS
First Claim
1. A hand-supportable area-type planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based device, comprising:
- a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture;
a support platform mounted within said hand-supportable housing;
an area-type image formation and detection module mounted on said support platform, and having a 2-D array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a 3-D field of view (FOV) projectable through said light transmission aperture and into a space definable external to said hand-supportable housing, and in which an object can be presented for illumination and imaging, and a 2-D image of said object within said 3-D FOV is formed onto said 2-D array of image detection elements;
a pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) arranged on opposite sides of said area-type image formation and detection module and mounted within said hand-supportable housing, each said planar laser array (PLIA) producing a plurality of spatially-incoherent planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) components that are optically combined with respect to other said PLIB components so as to produce a composite planar laser illumination beam (PLIB);
each said PLIA including a plurality of planar laser illumination modules (PLIMs) arranged together in a linear manner, and each said PLIM including a laser diode and beam focusing and diverging optics for producing one of said plurality of spatially-incoherent PLIB components;
a planar laser beam folding/sweeping mirror arrangement, mounted within said hand-supportable housing for folding and sweeping said composite PLIB so that the optical path of said composite PLIB is oriented in said predetermined imaging direction that is coplanar with a section of said 3-D FOV as said composite PLIB is swept through said 3-D FOV during object illumination and imaging operations, whereby the object is illuminated by said composite PLIB and imaged within said 3-D FOV, and a series of linear digital images of said object are sequentially detected by said area-type image formation and detection module over the photo-integration time period thereof so as to detect a two-dimensional digital image of said object and also a number of substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during the photo-integration time period thereof; and
wherein the level of speckle noise power observed at said 2-D array of image detection elements is reduced through temporal averaging of said substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during said photo-integration time period.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A hand-supportable area-type planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based device comprising an area-type image formation and detection (IFD) module having a 2-D array of image detection elements. The IFD module also includes image formation optics having a 3-D field of view (FOV). The 3-D FOV focuses a 2-D image of said object onto the 2-D array of image detection elements. A pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) are arranged on opposite sides of the linear image formation and detection module, and produce a plurality of spatially-incoherent planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) components that are optically combined with respect to other PLIB components so as to produce a composite PLIB. The composite PLIB is automatically swept through the 3-D field of view so that the composite PLIB is arranged in a coplanar relationship with at least a portion of the 3-D FOV.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A hand-supportable area-type planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based device, comprising:
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a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture;
a support platform mounted within said hand-supportable housing;
an area-type image formation and detection module mounted on said support platform, and having a 2-D array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a 3-D field of view (FOV) projectable through said light transmission aperture and into a space definable external to said hand-supportable housing, and in which an object can be presented for illumination and imaging, and a 2-D image of said object within said 3-D FOV is formed onto said 2-D array of image detection elements;
a pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) arranged on opposite sides of said area-type image formation and detection module and mounted within said hand-supportable housing, each said planar laser array (PLIA) producing a plurality of spatially-incoherent planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) components that are optically combined with respect to other said PLIB components so as to produce a composite planar laser illumination beam (PLIB);
each said PLIA including a plurality of planar laser illumination modules (PLIMs) arranged together in a linear manner, and each said PLIM including a laser diode and beam focusing and diverging optics for producing one of said plurality of spatially-incoherent PLIB components;
a planar laser beam folding/sweeping mirror arrangement, mounted within said hand-supportable housing for folding and sweeping said composite PLIB so that the optical path of said composite PLIB is oriented in said predetermined imaging direction that is coplanar with a section of said 3-D FOV as said composite PLIB is swept through said 3-D FOV during object illumination and imaging operations, whereby the object is illuminated by said composite PLIB and imaged within said 3-D FOV, and a series of linear digital images of said object are sequentially detected by said area-type image formation and detection module over the photo-integration time period thereof so as to detect a two-dimensional digital image of said object and also a number of substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during the photo-integration time period thereof; and
wherein the level of speckle noise power observed at said 2-D array of image detection elements is reduced through temporal averaging of said substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during said photo-integration time period. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A hand-supportable area-type planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based device comprising:
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a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture;
a support platform mounted within said hand-supportable housing;
an area-type image formation and detection module mounted on said support platform, and having a 2-D array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a 3-D field of view (FOV) projectable through said light transmission aperture and into a space definable external to said hand-supportable housing, and in which an object can be presented for illumination and imaging, and a 2-D image of said object within said 3-D FOV is focused onto said 2-D array of image detection elements;
a stationary field of view folding mirror, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for folding said 3-D FOV in a predetermined imaging direction with respect to said light transmission aperture;
a pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) arranged on opposite sides of said area-type image formation and detection module and mounted within said hand-supportable housing, each said planar laser array (PLIA) producing a plurality of spatially-incoherent planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) components that are optically combined with respect to other said PLIB components so as to produce a composite planar laser illumination beam (PLIB);
each said PLIA including a plurality of planar laser illumination modules (PLIMs) arranged together in a linear manner, and each said PLIM including a laser diode and beam focusing and diverging optics for producing one of said plurality of spatially-incoherent PLIB components;
a planar laser beam folding/sweeping mirror arrangement, mounted within said hand-supportable housing for folding and sweeping said composite PLIB so that the optical path of said composite PLIB is oriented in said predetermined imaging direction that is coplanar with a section of said 3-D FOV as said composite PLIB is swept through said 3-D FOV during object illumination and imaging operations, whereby the object is illuminated by said composite PLIB and imaged within said 3-D FOV, and a series of linear digital images of said object are sequentially detected by said area-type image formation and detection module over the photo-integration time period thereof so as to detect a two-dimensional digital image of said object and also a number of substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during the photo-integration time period thereof; and
wherein the level of speckle noise power observed at said 2-D array of image detection elements is reduced through temporal averaging of said substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during said photo-integration time period. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An area-type planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based engine for use in a host system, said area-type PLIIM based engine comprising:
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an engine housing having a light transmission aperture;
a support platform mounted within said engine housing;
an area-type image formation and detection module mounted on said support platform, and having a 2-D array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a 3-D field of view (FOV) projectable through said light transmission aperture and into a space definable external to said band-supportable housing, and in which an object can be presented for illumination and imaging, and a 2-D image of said object within said 3-D FOV is focused onto said 2-D array of image detection elements;
a pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) arranged on opposite sides of said area-type image formation and detection module and mounted within said hand-supportable housing, each said planar laser array (PLIA) producing a plurality of spatially-incoherent planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) components that are optically combined with respect to other said PLIB components so as to produce a composite planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) during object illumination and imaging operations;
each said PLIA including a plurality of planar laser illumination modules (PLIMs) arranged together in a linear manner, and each said PLIM including a laser diode and beam focusing and diverging optics for producing one of said plurality of spatially-incoherent PLIB components;
a planar laser beam folding/sweeping mirror arrangement, mounted within said hand-supportable housing for folding and sweeping said composite PLIB so that the optical path of said composite PLIB is oriented in a direction that is coplanar with a section of said 3-D FOV as said composite PLIB is swept through said 3-D FOV during object illumination and imaging operations;
whereby the object is illuminated by said composite PLIB and imaged within said 3-D FOV, and a series of linear digital images of said object are sequentially detected by said area-type image formation and detection module over the photo-integration time period thereof so as to detect a two-dimensional digital image of said object, and also a number of substantially different individual speckle noise patterns are detected at said 2-D array of image detection elements during the photo-integration time period thereof; and
wherein the level of speckle noise power observed at said 2-D array of image detection elements is reduced through temporal averaging of said substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during said photo-integration time period. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. An area-type planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based engine for use in a host system, said area-type PLIIM based engine comprising:
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an engine housing having a light transmission aperture;
a support platform mounted within said engine housing;
an area-type image formation and detection module mounted on said support platform, and having a 2-D array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a 3-D field of view (FOV) projectable through said light transmission aperture and into a space definable external to said hand-supportable housing, and in which an object can be presented for illumination and imaging, and a 2-D image of said object within said 3-D FOV is focused onto said 2-D array of image detection elements;
a stationary field of view folding mirror, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for folding said 3-D FOV of said area-type image formation and detection module in a predetermined imaging direction with respect to said light transmission aperture;
a pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) arranged on opposite sides of said area-type image formation and detection module and mounted within said hand-supportable housing, each said planar laser array (PLIA) producing a plurality of spatially-incoherent planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) components that are optically combined with respect to other said PLIB components so as to produce a composite planar laser illumination beam (PLIB);
each said PLIA including a plurality of planar laser illumination modules (PLIMs) arranged in a linear manner, and each said PLIM including a laser diode and beam focusing and diverging optics for producing one of said plurality of spatially-incoherent PLIB components;
a planar laser beam folding/sweeping mirror arrangement, mounted within said hand-supportable housing for folding and sweeping said composite PLIB so that the optical path of said composite PLIB is oriented in a predetermined imaging direction that is coplanar with a section of said 3-D FOV of said area-type image formation and detection module as said composite PLIB is swept through said 3-D FOV during object illumination and imaging operations, whereby the object is illuminated by said composite PLIB and imaged within said 3-D FOV, and a series of linear digital images of said object are sequentially detected by said area-type image formation and detection module over the photo-integration time period thereof so as to detect a two-dimensional digital image of said object, and also a number of substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during the photo-integration time period thereof; and
wherein the level of speckle noise power observed at said 2-D array of image detection elements is reduced through temporal averaging of said substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at said 2-D array of image detection elements during said photo-integration time period. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification