METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ELECTRO-OPTICALLY DETERMINING THE DIMENSION, LOCATION AND ATTITUDE OF OBJECTS

A method and apparatus for control of a detector array based imaging system which includes analyzing the output of a photodetector array and modifying or controlling a photodetector array light gathering related variable based on the analysis. In particular, one embodiment of the invention involves temporarily storing the image data from the photodetector array and modifying one of the scan clock rate or the scan clock rate within a scan of the photodetector array based on an analysis of the stored data to optimize the light gathering of the image system. A further embodiment of the invention involves controlling a light gathering related photodetector array variable and an illumination source variable based on an analysis of the output of the photodetector array.