Method of and system for automatically producing digital images of a moving object, with pixels having a substantially uniform white level independent of the velocity of said moving object

US6830185B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• METROLOGIC INSTRUMENTS, INC. · US

Inventors

• Constantine J. Tsikos · Voorhees, US
• C. Harry Knowles · Moorestown, US
• Xiaoxun Zhu · Marlton, US
• Michael Schnee · Chester, US
• Ka Man Au · Philadelphia, US
• Allan Wirth · Bedford, US
• Timothy Good · Blackwood, US
• Sankar Ghosh · Philadelphia, US
• Thomas Amundsen · Turnersville, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 23, 2002
• Grant date: Dec 14, 2004
• Expiry date: Nov 6, 2022

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S5/02325
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A method of and apparatus for automatically producing digital images of an object having a substantially uniform white level independent of the velocity of the object. The method comprising determining the velocity of an object moving relative to a planar light illumination and imaging (PLIIM) based imaging system having a linear image detection array with a field of view (FOV), a planar light illumination array (PLIA) with a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged in a linear array for producing a planar light illumination beam (PLIB) coplanar with the FOV, and a micro-controller for controlling the operation of the PLIIM based imaging system. The determined velocity is used to compute the optical power which each light emitting diode (LED) must produce in order that each digital image of the object, formed by illuminating the object with the computed optical power, will have substantially the same white intensity level independent of the velocity of the object relative to the PLIIM-based imaging system. The computed optical power value(s) are transmitted to the micro-controller, and the micro-controller uses the computed optical power value(s) to drive each light emitt…