Digital image capture and processing system supporting a periodic snapshot mode of operation wherein during each image acquisition cycle, the rows of image detection elements in the image detection array are exposed simultaneously to illumination

A digital image capture and processing system including a housing having an imaging window; and an image formation and detection subsystem supporting a periodic snap shot mode of the operation. The system includes image formation optics for projecting a field of view (FOV) through said imaging window and upon an object within the FOV, and forming an image of the object on an area-type image detection array having a plurality of rows of image detection elements, and detecting 2D digital images of the object while object illumination and imaging operations. The system also includes an LED-based illumination subsystem, with a LED illumination array, for producing a field of narrow-band illumination within the FOV, and illuminating the object detected in the FOV, so that the illumination reflects off the object and is transmitted back through the light transmission aperture and onto the image detection array to form the 2D digital image of the object. During the periodic snap shot mode of the operation, the image detection array supports periodic image acquisition cycles, and during each image acquisition cycle, substantially all image detection elements in the image detection array are exposed simultaneously to the illumination. In the illustrative embodiment, each image acquisition cycle has a predetermined time duration followed by a decode-processing cycle having a time duration approximately equal to the duration of the image acquisition cycle so that at least ten (10) image frames can be acquired per second.