Miniature long range imaging engine with auto-focus and auto-zoom system

An imaging engine having an imaging assembly having a field of view (FOV) and comprising:

• a variable focus optical element disposed along an optical axis to receive light from an object;
• an imaging sensor disposed along the optical axis to receive light from the variable focus optical element;
• a digital zoom module configured to modify an image received from the imaging sensor;
• an aiming module configured to generate and direct an aim light pattern;
• and
• a microprocessor and computer-readable media storing machine readable instructions that, when executed, cause the imaging engine to:
• detect a presence of the aim light pattern in the FOV;
• responsive to the detecting, determine a target distance of the object in the FOV based on a position of the aim light pattern in the FOV, the target distance being a distance from the imaging engine to the object;
• and
• responsive to making a first determination, select, based on the target distance, one of a plurality of zoom operation modes;
• wherein the variable focus optical element, the digital zoom module, and the aiming module are communicatively coupled to the microprocessor,
• wherein selecting one of the plurality of zoom operation modes includes:
• responsive to determining the target distance to be less than a lower threshold, selecting an image binning mode;
• responsive to determining the target distance to be greater than an upper threshold value, selecting an image cropping mode:
• and
• responsive to determining the target distance to be between the lower threshold value and the upper threshold value, selecting an image interleaving mode.