INDICIA READING TERMINAL PROCESSING PLURALITY OF FRAMES OF IMAGE DATA RESPONSIVELY TO TRIGGER SIGNAL ACTIVATION

• US 20140332590A1
• Filed: 07/30/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Ynjiun P., Bremer, Edward C., Feng, Chen, Gannon, Colleen P., Havens, William H., Li, Jianhua, Meier, Timothy P.
• Granted Patent: US 9,996,720 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/440
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10 by electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical sensing; by corpuscular radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10732 Light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1096 the scanner having more than one scanning window, e.g. two substantially orthogonally placed scanning windows for integration into a check-out counter of a super-market
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/14 using light without selection of wavelength, e.g. sensing reflected white light G06K7/10831 - G06K7/1097 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1465 using several successive scans of the optical code
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00331 with an apparatus performing optical character recognition character recognition G06V30/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00334 with an apparatus processing barcodes or the like arrangements for sensing record carriers G06K7/00

Abstract

There is described a decodable indicia reading terminal which in one embodiment can capture and process a certain (e.g., a first) and a subsequent (e.g., a second) frame of image data, wherein the certain and the subsequent frames have different imaging attributes. In one embodiment the attributes between certain and subsequent frames are differentiated in that the certain frame represents light incident on pixels of a first image sensor and the subsequent frame of image data represents light incident on pixels of a second image sensor spaced apart from the first image sensor.

Claims

1. A terminal comprising:

an imaging module, comprising an image sensor, a printed circuit board, an imaging lens assembly, and circuitry for outputting image data;

a parallel to serial converter disposed on the imaging module for receiving the image data;

an image capture and processing circuit, comprising;

a processor;

an addressable memory addressable by the processor, wherein the addressable memory retains frames of image data from the imaging module; and

a serial to parallel converter;

a connector facilitating communication between the parallel to serial converter and the serial to parallel converter;

wherein the parallel to serial converter outputs a complementary differential pair signal;

wherein the serial to parallel converter recovers the image data received by the parallel to serial converter and outputs data for retaining in the addressable memory.

2. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the connector is a complementary differential-pair connector.

3. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the connector is a set of twisted-pair signal lines.

4. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the image capture and processing circuit is disposed on a motherboard spaced apart from the imaging module.

5. The terminal of claim 1, wherein the parallel to serial converter is integrated into an integrated circuit forming the image sensor of the imaging module.

6. An image capture and processing circuit for an indicia reading terminal, the image capture and processing circuit comprising:

a processor;

a memory for retaining frames of image data that can be processed by said processor;

wherein the image capture and processing circuit is configured to receive image data from a first imaging module and a second imaging module;

first resources stored in the memory to support operation of the image capture and processing circuit when the image capture and processing circuit is receiving image data from the first imaging module;

second resources stored in the memory to support operation of the image capture and processing circuit when the image capture and processing circuit is receiving image data from the second imaging module;

wherein the first imaging module is a first type of a plural image sensor imaging module; and

wherein the second imaging module is a second type of a plural image sensor imaging module.

7. The image capture and processing circuit of claim 6, wherein the indicia reading terminal is adapted so that resources corresponding to a particular imaging module can be activated responsively to an imaging module being connected thereto.

8. The image capture and processing circuit of claim 6, wherein the indicia reading terminal is adapted to be actuated responsively to a user initiated command.

9. The image capture and processing circuit of claim 6, wherein the first imaging module comprises a monochrome image sensor and the second imaging module comprises a color image sensor.

10. The image capture and processing circuit of claim 6, wherein the first imaging module comprises a linear image sensor and the second imaging module comprises a two-dimensional image sensor.

11. The image capture and processing circuit of claim 6, wherein the first imaging module comprises a linear monochrome image sensor and the second imaging module comprises a two-dimensional color image sensor.

12. An imaging module comprising:

a first image sensor;

a second image sensor;

a printed circuit board for carrying the first image sensor and/or the second image sensor;

optics for focusing images onto the first image sensor and the second image sensor;

a connector port for outputting image data, the connector port having a plurality of video contacts;

wherein the first image sensor, the second image sensor, and the connector port are held in certain positions relative to one another; and

wherein the imaging module outputs, through certain contacts of the plurality of video contacts, image data corresponding to image signals generated by either the first image sensor or the second image sensor so that a number of the plurality of video contacts is less than a sum of a bit resolution of image data corresponding to image signals generated by the first image sensor and a bit resolution of image data corresponding to image signals generated by the second image sensor.

13. The imaging module of claim 12, wherein said imaging module is adapted to send identifying information of said module to an external circuit when connected to said external circuit.

14. The imaging module of claim 12, wherein the printed circuit board carries the first image sensor and the second image sensor.

15. The imaging module of claim 12, wherein the optics comprise a first imaging lens assembly for focusing images onto the first image sensor.

16. The imaging module of claim 12, wherein the optics comprise a second imaging lens assembly for focusing images onto the second image sensor.

17. The imaging module of claim 12, wherein the plurality of video contacts comprise:

a first set of video contacts dedicated for transmitting image data corresponding to image signals generated by the first image sensor; and

a second set of video contacts dedicated for transmitting image data corresponding to image signals generated by the second image sensor.

18. The imaging module of claim 12, wherein the plurality of video contacts comprise a set of video contacts through which image data corresponding to image signals generated by the first image sensor and image data corresponding to image signals generated by the second image sensor can be transmitted.