Methods, apparatuses and articles for automatic data collection devices, for example barcode readers, in cluttered environments

• US 20060261167A1
• Filed: 05/16/2006
• Published: 11/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Hunt, Jeffrey M., Ray, Jim T., Kohtz, Robert A., Dant, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,392,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/462.80
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10851 Circuits for pulse shaping, amplifying, eliminating noise signals, checking the function of the sensing device basic electronic circuitry H03

Abstract

A reader such as a barcode reader identifies at least one potential target such as a barcode symbol in its field-of-view, and projects or transmits an indicator toward or proximate the potential target containing information about the respective potential target. Such information may include which target is currently active, the symbology in which the target is encoded, the relative position of the reader with respect to the target, the ability of the reader to decode the target, and/or ranked or sorted order information regarding the target and neighboring targets. The reader may rank, sort, prioritize or otherwise determine order based on various parameters, including symbology, position in field-of-view, size, etc., and may base such on past history of the reader and/or user, and may weight such.

Claims

1. A method of operating a machine-readable symbol reader, the method comprising:

capturing an image of an area encompassed by a field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader, the field-of-view encompassing a number of objects;

automatically locating a representation of at least one of the number of the objects in the image;

automatically determining at least in part from the at least one located representation that at least one of the number of objects is an object of interest; and

projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically determining at least in part from the located representation that at least one of the number of objects is an object of interest comprises:

determining at least one characteristic of the at least one located representation of the object; and

comparing the at least one determined characteristic to at least one defined criteria.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

ranking at least some of the objects based at least in part on the comparing of the at least one determined characteristic to at least one defined criteria.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest comprises projecting a first indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with a highest ranked one of the objects.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest further comprises projecting a second indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with a next highest ranked one of the objects, the second indicia different from the first indicia.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining whether a user object selection input is received within a defined period of time after projecting the at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward the region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

processing the located representation in the image of the highest ranked object if the user object selection input is not received with the defined period of time.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with a next highest ranked one of the objects if the user object selection input is received.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest comprises projecting at least one human intelligible indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein projecting at least one human intelligible indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader comprises projecting an alphanumeric message.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the object of interest is a machine-readable symbol and projecting an alphanumeric message comprises projecting an alphanumeric message regarding a symbology in which the machine-readable symbol is encoded.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein projecting at least one human intelligible indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader comprises projecting indicia representing a rank of the located representation of the object of interest in a default sequence in which the located representation will be decoded unless a user input is received.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the object of interest is a machine-readable symbol and projecting an alphanumeric message comprises projecting an alphanumeric message regarding a relative position of the machine-readable symbol reader with respect to the machine-readable symbol.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest comprises projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward the a portion of the area that is spatially associated with the object of interest.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest comprises projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward the a portion of the area that is proximate the object of interest.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the machine-readable symbol reader which is associated with the object of interest comprises projecting at least one indicia from the machine-readable symbol reader toward the a portion of the area that encompasses at least a portion of the object of interest.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of objects is one and the object is a machine-readable symbol.

18. A reader, comprising:

an imager having a field-of-view selectively positionable to encompass an area comprising a number of objects and operable to image the area and the number of objects;

an image processing subsystem configured to automatically locate a representation of at least one of the number of the objects in the image;

a processor configured to automatically determine at least in part from the located representation that at least one of the number of objects is an object of interest; and

an indicator subsystem configured to project at least one indicia from the reader toward a region-of-interest in the area encompassed by the field-of-view of the reader which is associated with the object of interest.

19. The reader of claim 18 wherein the processor is configured to automatically determine at least in part from the located representation that at least one of the number of objects is an object of interest by:

determining at least one characteristic of the located representation of the object of interest; and

comparing the at least one determined characteristic to at least one defined criteria.

20. The reader of claim 19 wherein the processor is further configured to rank at least some of the number of objects based at least in part on the comparing of the at least one determined characteristic to the at least one defined criteria.