Method for scanning a plurality of bar code labels

• US 5,237,163 A
• Filed: 01/06/1992
• Issued: 08/17/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Collins, Donald A. Jr., Blanford, Denis M.
• Primary Examiner(s): PITTS, HAROLD I
• Application Number:
  US07/817,192
• Time in Patent Office: 589 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462, 235/472
• US Class Current: 235/462.25
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/14 using light without selection of wavelength, e.g. sensing reflected white light G06K7/10831 - G06K7/1097 take precedence

Abstract

A method for processing the reading of bar code tags or labels in which a bar code scanner reads a plurality of bar code tags in the field of view of the scanner while in a stationary position generating tag representation for each tag read comprising the steps of storing in a first storage unit the first tag representation, comparing each succeeding tag representation with the first tag representation and generating a count representing the number of times the same tag read was read for use in processing the bar code tags in the minimum amount of time.

Claims

1. A method for processing the reading of a plurality of bar-code tags or labels in which a bar-code scanner reads each of a number of bar-code tags located in the field of view of the scanner at the same time while in a stationary position generating a tag representation for each tag read, comprising the steps of:

storing in a first storage unit data representing the first tag representation;

generating a count representing the first tag read;

comparing each succeeding tag representation with the first tag representation;

increasing the count each time a tag representation is found to be the same as the first tag representation; and

storing the count generated in a second storage unit indicating the number of readings of the same tag by the scanner for use in processing all of the tag representations.

2. The method of claim 1 which further includes the stop of starting a timeout period to run upon storing the first tag representation in the first storage unit.

3. The method of claim 1 which further includes the stop of storing second tag representation in a second storage unit when the second tag representation is found not to be the same as the first tag representation.

4. The method of claim 3 which further includes the stop of starting a second timeout period to run upon storing the second tag representation in the second storage unit.

5. The method of claim 2 which further includes the step of storing data representing the timeout period generated and clearing the timeout period when a subsequent tag representation is found to be the same as the first tag representation.

6. The method of claim 5 which further includes the step of detecting if a timeout period has expired when no tag representation is generated by the scanner.

7. The method of claim 1 which further includes the step of storing in a third storage unit time data indicating the time the same tag was last read to increase the time of reading the bar code tags.