Hand held bar code scanner with improved aiming means

• US 5,212,371 A
• Filed: 03/01/1991
• Issued: 05/18/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 03/01/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: PTO (Safe Fleet Holdings LLC)
• Original Assignee: PTO (Safe Fleet Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: White, Dean S., Hems, Randall K., Boles, John A.
• Primary Examiner(s): LaRoche, Eugene R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tan
• Application Number:
  US07/663,229
• Time in Patent Office: 809 Days
• Field of Search: 235/472, 235/467, 235/462, 235/463
• US Class Current: 235/462.39
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2207/1011 Aiming
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2207/1018 Source control
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners

Abstract

A bar code scanner has a laser which produces a beam incident on a deflector, such as a polygon, which projects a scan beam out of the scanner so as to scan a bar code; light reflected or scattered from the code being detected so as to provide signals from which the bar code may be decoded. In order to insure that the scan beam is incident on the code, a bright oblong spot is provided by a second laser and a mirror which deflects the beam from the second laser along a path, generally paralleling the scan beam, through a cylindrical lens, and intersecting the scan beam approximately in the center of the scan on the code. The laser producing the aiming spot and the deflector drive circuits are initiated upon actuation of a trigger. The laser which produces the scan beam (the scan laser) is inhibited by circuits responsive to the movement of the deflector so that the scan laser is not turned on until the deflector is able to scan the beam from the scan laser thereby insuring that the total laser power which may illuminate a small area is within radiation, health and safety limits.

Claims

1. In a hand held bar code scanner which produces a scanning beam and directs said beam along a first path and has an aiming system which comprises a laser which projects an aiming laser beams along a second path independent from said scanning beam and having a window through which said scanning and aiming beam both pass and are directed to a bar code across which said scanning beam executes a scan to read said code, the improvement comprising means including a mirror disposed along said second path of said aiming laser beam for bending said aiming beam to be parallel to the scanning beam and to intersect said code at the center of the scan, and a lense in the second path to said window along the path of said aiming beam for modifying said aiming beam to provide an oblong spot in the general vicinity of the center of the scan across the bar code.

2. The hand held scanner according to claim 1 wherein the said laser for the aiming beam is provided by a laser diode having optics which form its respective beam.

3. The improvement according to claim 1 further comprising a housing having opposite ends and in which said aiming laser is mounted near one of said opposite ends facing the other of said opposite ends, said housing having a flap extending from the other of said opposite ends, and a reflective surface on said other of said opposite ends providing said mirror.

4. The hand held scanner according to claim 1 wherein said lense is a cylindrical lense in said second path for elongating said spot in the direction of the bars of said code.