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Signature capture using electro-optical scanning

  • US 5,138,140 A
  • Filed: 08/22/1990
  • Issued: 08/11/1992
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/22/1990
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An arrangement for electro-optically capturing indicia, comprising:

  • (a) means defining a space for receiving indicia to be captured, said space including opposite boundaries spaced apart of each other and extending along a longitudinal direction, and also extending over a transverse distance along a transverse direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, said space having occupied zones containing indicia and non-occupied zones free of indicia;

    (b) multi-row preamble code means and multi-row postamble code means respectively located at the opposite boundaries of the space, each code means including electro-optically scannable and readable encoded data arranged in a plurality of ordered rows tiered along the transverse direction over the transverse distance of the space, each row extending along the longitudinal direction, the data in each row of each code means including row identifier data for identifying each row and start/stop data for identifying the boundaries of the space; and

    (c) scanner means for electro-optically scanning light along scan lines that extend over the space occupied by the indicia and over each code means, and for decoding the row identifier data and the start/stop data for each scan line as each scan line traverses the boundaries of the space, each scan line also traversing the occupied zones and the non-occupied zones, the occupied zones having a different light reflectivity than the non-occupied zones,said scanner means comprising(i) a housing,(ii) means in the housing for generating a beam spot exteriorly of the housing,(iii) means for sweeping the beam spot along mutually parallel sweep directions to form a raster pattern consisting of a plurality of mutually parallel scan lines,(iv) means for capturing the identity and the location of the occupied zones and the non-occupied zones, wherein the capturing means includes means for generating a digitized electrical signal having two states, each indicative of one of the occupied and non-occupied zones, and means for storing the digitized signal, and(v) means for retrieving the stored digitized signal and using the decoded row identifier data of the preamble code means and the postamble code means to compensate for skewing of the raster pattern with respect to the space for receiving indicia to thereby reconstruct the captured indicia, and(vi) means for displaying the reconstructed captured indicia.

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