1. A digital image capture and processing system for automatically recognizing objects at a point of sale (POS) station, comprising: a system housing having an imaging window, and containing a digital image capturing and processing engine including a plurality of coplanar illumination and imaging stations, for generating and projecting a complex of coplanar illumination and imaging planes through said imaging window, and within a 3D imaging volume definable relative to said imaging window for omni-directional imaging of objects passing through said 3D imaging volume, and detecting digital linear images of each said object as said object intersects coplanar illumination and imaging planes within said 3D imaging volume during system operation; wherein each said coplanar illumination and imaging station includes (i) an illumination subsystem having a linear illumination array including a plurality of light emitting devices for producing a planar illumination beam (PLIB), and (ii) an image formation and detection subsystem including a linear image detection array having optics providing a field of view (FOV) on said linear image detection array, and extending substantially along said PLIB so as to form one said coplanar illumination and imaging plane, which is projected through said imaging window and into said 3D imaging volume; a database for storing one or more object libraries representing objects that can be recognized by said digital image capture and processing system; and a digital image processing subsystem for automatically (i) processing digital linear images generated by said coplanar illumination and imaging stations, (ii) extracting object features from processed digital linear images, and (iii) recognizing objects which are represented by said object libraries and producing information representative of said recognized objects for display at said POS station.