Method of reading a barcode and deactivating an electronic article surveillance tag
First Claim
1. A method, comprising:
- reading a barcode with a scanner having a depth of field (DoF);
determining, with a distance sensing system, a distance between the scanner and an electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag;
if the distance from the scanner to the EAS tag is less than an EAS range, outputting barcode data to a host, sending a signal to an EAS device to deactivate the EAS tag, and provide a positive indication to a user; and
if the distance from the scanner to the barcode is greater than the EAS range, discarding the barcode data and providing a negative indication to the user;
wherein the host and the EAS device are coupled to the scanner.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method for managing the reading of a barcode and deactivation of an EAS tag relative to an EAS effective range and a depth of field (DoF) of the scanner is described. A product may comprise a barcode and a co-located EAS tag. The method uses a distance sensing system to sense how far the product is located from the scanner front window. The method only outputs the decoded data of the barcode when the product is inside an EAS effective distance. When the product is inside the EAs effective distance, the EAS tag on the product is deactivated. When a customer leaves a store with the EAS tag deactivated, a store alarm may not sound. When the product is outside of the EAS effective distance, but inside the DoF, the decoded data of the barcode is discarded.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method, comprising:
-
reading a barcode with a scanner having a depth of field (DoF); determining, with a distance sensing system, a distance between the scanner and an electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag; if the distance from the scanner to the EAS tag is less than an EAS range, outputting barcode data to a host, sending a signal to an EAS device to deactivate the EAS tag, and provide a positive indication to a user; and if the distance from the scanner to the barcode is greater than the EAS range, discarding the barcode data and providing a negative indication to the user; wherein the host and the EAS device are coupled to the scanner. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method, comprising:
-
determining, with a device, a distance between the device and an object; attempting to decode, with the device, a machine-readable indicia on the object; if the determined distance between the device and the object is within a pre-defined range, generating data representative of the machine-readable indicia; and if the determined distance between the device and the object is not within the pre-defined range, discarding the data representative of the machine-readable indicia. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method, comprising:
-
decoding data of a barcode with a scanner, wherein the barcode is positioned in front of the scanner and inside a depth of field (DoF) of the scanner; determining a distance between the scanner and barcode; if the distance from the scanner to the barcode is within a pre-defined range, outputting barcode data to a host that is coupled to the scanner and providing a positive indication to a user associated with the host; and if the distance from the scanner to the barcode is greater than the pre-defined range, discarding the barcode data and providing a negative indication to the user associated with the host. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
Specification