Wireless laser scanning bar code symbol reading system employing a low-battery protection circuit, vibrational alarm and sleep mode of operation
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Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed is an automatically-activated wireless code symbol reading system comprising a bar code symbol reading mechanism contained within a hand-supportable housing having a manually-activatable data transmission switch. During symbol reading operations, the bar code symbol reading mechanism automatically generates a visible laser scanning pattern for repeatedly reading one or more bar code symbols on an object during a bar code symbol reading cycle, and automatically generating a new symbol character data string in response to each bar code symbol read thereby. During system operation, the user visually aligns the visible laser scanning pattern with a particular bar code symbol on an object (e.g. product, bar code menu, etc.) so that the bar code symbol is scanned, detected and decoded in a cyclical manner. Each time the scanned bar code symbol is successfully read during a bar code symbol reading cycle, a new bar code symbol character string is produced, while an indicator light on the hand-supportable housing is actively driven. During the bar code symbol reading cycle, the user actuates the data transmission switch producing a data transmission control activation signal and enabling a currently or subsequently produced symbol character data string to be automatically selected and transmitted to the host system. By virtue of the present invention, automatically-activated hand-supportable bar code symbol readers are now able to accurately read, in an unprecedented manner, bar code symbols on bar code menus, consumer products positioned in crowded point-of-sale environments, and other objects requiring automatic identification and/or information access.
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Citations
94 Claims
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1-92. -92. (canceled)
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93. A wireless laser bar code symbol reading system, comprising:
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a wireless hand-supportable bar code symbol reader in two-way RF communication with a base station operably connected to a host system, by way of an RF-based wireless data communication link over which two-way communication of data packets can occur in a reliable manner, wherein said wireless hand-supportable bar code reader has an operational mode and a sleep mode, and further includes (1) a hand-supportable housing;
(2) a laser-scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism, including a laser diode source, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for automatically producing a visible laser scanning pattern, reading a bar code symbol on an object using said visible laser scanning pattern, and producing a symbol character data string representative of said read bar code symbol;
(3) a first RF-based transceiver circuit, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for transmitting data packets corresponding to said produced symbol character data string, over said RF-based wireless data communication link, to said base station for subsequent transmission to said host system;
(4) a battery device for producing a voltage for use in driving electrical components contained within said hand-supportable housing;
(5) a low battery condition detection circuit disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for automatically monitoring the voltage state of said battery device and generating a control signal upon automatic detection of a low voltage state in said battery device;
(6) a low battery-voltage alarm device disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for producing a low-voltage alarm signal in response to the generation of said control signal; and
(7) a device controller, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for automatically driving said wireless hand-supportable bar code reader into said operational state by activating said laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism and said first RF-based transceiver circuit when not receiving said control signal, and for automatically driving said wireless hand-supportable bar code reader into said sleep state by deactivating said laser diode and said first RF transceiver circuit when receiving said control signal. - View Dependent Claims (94)
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Specification