Hand-supportable planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) device for producing a planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) coplanar with the field of view (FOV) of a linear image detection array
First Claim
1. A hand-supportable 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;
a linear image formation and detection (IFD) module mounted on said support platform, and having a linear array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a field of view (FOV) projectable through said light transmission aperture and into an illumination and imaging field, definable external to said hand-supportable housing, and in which an object can be presented for illumination and imaging, and said FOV focusing a linear image of said object onto said linear array of image detection elements, and said linear array of image detection elements detecting a linear image of said object; and
at least one planar laser illumination module (PLIM) mounted on said support platform, along with said linear IFD module, and producing a planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) that is spatially aligned with respect to said FOV and arranged in a coplanar relationship with at least a portion of said FOV;
wherein said PLIM includes a visible laser diode (VLD) and beam forming optics for producing said PLIB;
an image frame grabber for grabbing linear digital images formed and detected by said linear IFD module;
an image data buffer for buffering said grabbed linear digital images;
an image processor operably associated with said image data buffer, for processing said buffered linear digital images; and
a camera controller for controlling operations within said hand-supportable PLIIM based device.
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Abstract
A hand-supportable linear-type planar laser illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based device comprising a linear image formation and detection (IFD) module having a linear array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a field of view (FOV) focusing a linear image of an object onto the linear array of image detection elements. A pair of planar laser illumination arrays (PLIAs) is arranged on opposite sides of the linear image formation and detection module, and produces 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 planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) that is arranged in a coplanar relationship with at least a portion of the FOV. Each PLIA includes a plurality of planar laser illumination modules (PLIMs). Each PLIM includes a laser diode and beam focusing and diverging optics for producing one spatially-incoherent PLIB component. The composite PLIB produces a number of substantially different individual speckle noise patterns at the linear array of image detection elements during the photo-integration time period thereof. The speckle noise power observed at the linear array of image detection elements is reduced through temporal averaging of the individual speckle noise patterns during the photo-integration time period. By virtue of the present invention, it is now possible to use visible laser diodes (VLDs) to produce speckle-reduced images of objects suitable for OCR processing, while enjoying improved working distances offered by planar laser illumination techniques.
236 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A hand-supportable 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; a linear image formation and detection (IFD) module mounted on said support platform, and having a linear array of image detection elements and also image formation optics having a field of view (FOV) projectable through said light transmission aperture and into an illumination and imaging field, definable external to said hand-supportable housing, and in which an object can be presented for illumination and imaging, and said FOV focusing a linear image of said object onto said linear array of image detection elements, and said linear array of image detection elements detecting a linear image of said object; and at least one planar laser illumination module (PLIM) mounted on said support platform, along with said linear IFD module, and producing a planar laser illumination beam (PLIB) that is spatially aligned with respect to said FOV and arranged in a coplanar relationship with at least a portion of said FOV; wherein said PLIM includes a visible laser diode (VLD) and beam forming optics for producing said PLIB; an image frame grabber for grabbing linear digital images formed and detected by said linear IFD module; an image data buffer for buffering said grabbed linear digital images; an image processor operably associated with said image data buffer, for processing said buffered linear digital images; and a camera controller for controlling operations within said hand-supportable PLIIM based device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification