PORTABLE DATA COLLECTION DEVICE WITH COLOR IMAGING ASSEMBLY

A portable data collection device includes an imaging assembly including a two dimensional (2D) photosensor array overlied by a RGB color filter. The imaging assembly is selectively actuatable with a first trigger for reading a dataform in the imaging assembly's target area and actuatable with a second trigger for capturing a color image of the target area. The imaging assembly includes compensation circuitry to compensate for illumination transmittivity differences between the red, green and blue colors of the color filter. The compensation circuitry is invoked when the imaging assembly is actuated to read a bar code dataform. The imaging assembly further includes compression circuitry for compressing digital data representative of the target area when the imaging assembly is actuated to capture a color image of the target area.