Automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system having data-transmission activation switch

• US 6,595,420 B1
• Filed: 12/02/1999
• Issued: 07/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Schmidt, Mark, Wilz, David M. Sr., Blake, Robert E., Colavito, Stephen J., Rockstein, George B., Hudrick, Donald T., Russell, Garrett, Knowles, Carl Harry
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Michael G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim, Ahshik
• Application Number:
  US09/452,976
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.01, 235/462.25, 235/462.45, 235/472.01
• US Class Current: 235/462.01
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 15/00 Nanotechnology for interacting, sensing or actuating, e.g. quantum dots as markers in protein assays or molecular motors
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2207/1012 Special detection of object
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10 by electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical sensing; by corpuscular radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10544 by scanning of the records by radiation in the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10564 Light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10584 Source control
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10594 Beam path
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10603 Basic scanning using moving elements
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10663 using hologram
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10673 Parallel lines
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10693 for omnidirectional scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10702 Particularities of propagating elements, e.g. lenses, mirrors G06K7/10831 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10792 Special measures in relation to the object to be scanned
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10801 Multidistance reading
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10811 Focalisation
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10861 sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels postal sorting B07C3/14, conveying articles B65G47/48
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10871 randomly oriented data-fields, code-marks therefore, e.g. concentric circles-code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10891 the scanner to be worn on a finger or on a wrist
• 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

Disclosed is an automatically-activated body-wearable code symbol reading system comprising a bar code symbol reading mechanism contained within a body-wearable housing having a manually-activatable data transmission switch. During symbol reading operations, the bar code symbol reading mechanism automatically generates a visible laser scanning pattern for repeatedly reading one or more bar code symbols on an object during a bar code symbol reading cycle, and automatically generating a new symbol character data string in response to each bar code symbol read thereby. During system operation, the user visually aligns the visible laser scanning pattern with a particular bar code symbol on an object (e.g. product, bar code menu, etc.) so that the bar code symbol is scanned, detected and decoded in a cyclical manner. Each time the scanned bar code symbol is successfully read during a bar code symbol reading cycle, a new bar code symbol character string is produced, while an indicator light on the housing is actively driven. During the bar code symbol reading cycle, the user actuates the data transmission switch producing a data transmission control activation signal and enabling a currently or subsequently produced symbol character data string to be automatically selected and transmitted to the host system. By virtue of the present invention, automatically-activated body-wearable bar code symbol readers are now able to accurately read, in an unprecedented manner, bar code symbols on bar code menus, products positioned in crowded working environments, and other objects requiring automatic identification and/or information access.

Claims

1. An automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system operably connected to a host system, comprising:

a housing support wearable on the body of an operator;

a housing having a transmission aperture through which optical energy can exit and enter said housing, and being connected or coupled to said housing support so that said transmission aperture is orientable in a scanning direction;

a laser-scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism, disposed in said housing, for automatically producing a visible laser scanning pattern along said scanning direction and repeatedly reading a bar code symbol on an object within a predetermined time period using said visible laser scanning pattern, and each instant said bar code symbol is read within said predetermined time period, automatically producing a symbol character data string representative of said read bar code symbol;

a data transmission circuit, disposed in said housing, for transmitting, when activated, a selected one of said produced symbol character data strings to said host system;

a manually-activatable data transmission switch, integrated with said housing, for generating a data transmission control activation signal in response to the activation of said manually-activatable data transmission switch within said predetermined time period; and

a system controller for controlling said data transmission circuit so that the symbol character data string, produced at substantially the same time when said data transmission control activation signal is generated, is transmitted to said host system.

2. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, which further comprises a radio frequency transmitter, supportable on the body of said operator, for transmitting said symbol character data to a peripheral device.

3. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, wherein said housing support comprises a glove wearable about the hand of said operator.

4. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, wherein said glove allows one or more fingers of said operator to be exposed when worn about the hand thereof.

5. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, wherein said laser beam generator comprises a laser diode for producing a laser beam.

6. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, wherein said scanning direction is oriented along a pointing direction of one or more fingers of said operator.

7. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, which further comprises an indicator, integrated with said housing, for indicating each instance of when a bar code symbol is read by said laser-scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism and a symbol character data string representative thereof is produced.

8. The automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, which further comprises an objection detection subsystem disposed within said housing and including infrared (IR) signal transmission/receiving circuitry for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said housing.

9. The automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 1, which further comprises an objection detection subsystem disposed within said housing, and including low-power non-visible laser beam signaling mechanism for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said housing.

10. An automatically-activated body-wearable bar code symbol reading system operably connectable to a host system, comprising:

a housing support wearable on the body of an operator;

a housing having a transmission aperture through which optical energy can exit and enter said housing, and being connected or coupled to said housing support so that said transmission aperture is orientable in a scanning direction;

a laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism, disposed in said housing, for automatically producing a visible laser scanning pattern and repeatedly reading a bar code symbol on an object, and automatically generating a symbol character data string each instant said bar code symbol is read;

a manually-activatable data transmission switch integrated with said housing, for producing a data transmission activation signal; and

a data transmission mechanism programmably controlled to transmit to said host system, the symbol character data string produced at substantially the same time when said data transmission activation signal is generated.

11. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 10, which further comprises a radio frequency transmitter, supportable on the body of said operator, for transmitting said symbol character data to said host system.

12. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 10, wherein said housing support comprises a glove wearable about the hand of said operator.

13. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 10, wherein said glove allows one or more fingers of said operator to be exposed when worn about the hand thereof.

14. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 10, wherein said laser beam generator comprises a laser diode for producing a laser beam.

15. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 10, wherein said scanning direction is oriented along a pointing direction of one or more fingers of said operator.

16. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 10, which further comprises an objection detection subsystem disposed within said housing, and including infrared (IR) signal transmission/receiving circuitry, for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said housing.

17. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 10, which further comprises an objection detection subsystem disposed within said housing, and including low-power non-visible laser beam signaling mechanism for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said housing.

18. The automatically-activated body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of 10, which further comprises a base unit remotely situated from said housing and operably connected to said host system, and wherein said data transmission mechanism employs a wireless data packet transmission scheme to transmit said symbol character data string to said host system, via said base unit.

19. A method of reading a bar code symbol on an object using an automatic body-wearable laser scanning bar code symbol reading device being operably connected to a host system, and having a body-wearable housing and a data transmission control switch integrated with said body-wearable housing, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) supporting said body-wearable housing in proximity with an object bearing a bar code symbol;

(b) automatically generating a visible laser scanning pattern from said body-wearable housing and repeatedly reading said bar code symbol within a predetermined time period using said visible laser scanning pattern, and each instant said bar code symbol is read within said predetermined time period, automatically producing within said body-wearable housing a symbol character data string representative of said read bar code symbol;

(c) manually-activating said data transmission control switch so as to generate a data transmission activation control signal within said predetermined time period; and

(d) transmitting from said hand-supportable housing to said host system, the symbol character data string produced at substantially the same time when said data transmission control activation signal is generated.

20. The method of claim 19, which further comprises producing a visual indication each instant said bar code symbol is read and a symbol character data string representative thereof is produced.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein step (b) further comprises generating an object detection field relative to said body-wearable housing, within which said object is automatically detected using infrared (IR) signal transmission/receiving circuitry disposed within said body-wearable housing.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein step (b) further comprises generating an object detection field relative to said body-wearable housing, within which said object is automatically detected using a low-power non-visible laser beam signaling mechanism disposed within said body-wearable housing.

23. The automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading system of claim 19, which further comprises a radio frequency transmitter, supportable on the body of said operator, for transmitting said symbol character data to said host system.