Combination hand-held and counter-top omnidirectional scanner
First Claim
1. A compact scanner housing, comprising:
- a base unit having an upwardly curved top opening and a pair of opposing guide members mounted within the base unit beneath said curved top opening;
a scanning head for housing a scan platform and having an aperture for projecting a scanning pattern and receiving reflected light therethrough, said scanning head having an exterior curvature conforming to the curved top opening of said base unit for supporting pivoting thereon about an axis of rotation, and a downwardly protruding neck portion for insertion into said curved opening in said base unit and slidable cooperation with said pair of opposing guide members for further supporting pivoting about said axis of rotation;
said scanning head being doubly supported for pivoting both by the curved top opening of said base unit and by the opposing guide members in said base unit, respectively defining different radii of rotation about said axis of rotation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A bar code scanner for either fixed or hand-held disposition at a counter. The scanner includes a compact housing including a spherical head with a window and a downwardly protruding stem, and a sliding carriage attached to the base of the stem. The stem and sliding carriage cooperate with arcuate guide rails in the compact base for positioning the window via pivoting the head about a horizontal axis. An omni-directional scanning assembly is mounted in the head and this includes an object detection circuit for detecting and determining the presence of an object within an operative scanning field, a light source for generating a laser beam when an object is within the scanning field, a scanning mechanism for scanning the light beam across the object and its bar code, a photoreceiving circuit for receiving light reflected from the bar code, an A/D converter for generating a digital signal representing the light reflected from the bar code, and processing and control circuitry for decoding the bar coded-information and controlling overall system flow.
89 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A compact scanner housing, comprising:
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a base unit having an upwardly curved top opening and a pair of opposing guide members mounted within the base unit beneath said curved top opening;
a scanning head for housing a scan platform and having an aperture for projecting a scanning pattern and receiving reflected light therethrough, said scanning head having an exterior curvature conforming to the curved top opening of said base unit for supporting pivoting thereon about an axis of rotation, and a downwardly protruding neck portion for insertion into said curved opening in said base unit and slidable cooperation with said pair of opposing guide members for further supporting pivoting about said axis of rotation;
said scanning head being doubly supported for pivoting both by the curved top opening of said base unit and by the opposing guide members in said base unit, respectively defining different radii of rotation about said axis of rotation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A compact scanner, comprising:
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a scanner housing including a base unit having an upwardly directed opening, and a pair of opposing arcuate guide rails mounted within the base unit beneath said opening, a scanning head for enclosing a scan platform capable of projecting a scanning pattern and receiving reflected light, said head having an exterior curvature conforming to said opening of said base unit for supported pivotal seating thereon about an axis of rotation, and said head also having a downwardly protruding neck extending into said opening and for slidable cooperation with said pair of opposing arcuate guide rails, said scanning head being doubly supported for pivoting both by the top opening of said base unit and by the opposing guide rails in said base unit, respectively defining two different radii of rotation about said axis of rotation to minimize friction against said base unit; and
a scanning platform mounted in said head including an object detection circuit for detecting and determining the presence of an object within an operative scanning range. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A compact omnidirectional scanner, comprising:
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a scanner housing having (a) a substantially spherical scanning head having a light transmission aperture and a downwardly protruding neck portion extending therefrom, and (b) a base unit having an upwardly curved opening, and a pair of opposing guide members mounted in said base unit and recessed beneath said upwardly curved opening, wherein said neck portion of said scanning head is inserted into said base unit and is slidably supported by said guide members, said scanning head thereby being pivotable about an axis of rotation and being doubly supported for pivoting both by the upwardly curved opening of said base unit and by the pair of opposing guide members, respectively defining two different radii of rotation about said axis of rotation;
an omnidirectional laser scanning engine mounted in said scanning head having;
(a) an optical bench which extends along a central reference axis, (b) a laser beam producing means for producing a laser beam, (c) a laser beam sweeping means having at least first, second and third light reflective surfaces each being disposed a different acute angle with respect to a rotational axis of said laser beam sweeping means for sequentially sweeping said laser beam about said rotational axis along a plurality of different paths, (d) a stationary array of at least first second, third and fourth light reflective surfaces mounted to said optical bench, (e) a laser light collection subsystem, including a light collection element for collecting return laser light and a light receiving means for detecting the intensity said collected return laser light and producing an electrical signal indicative of said detected intensity, (f) signal processing means for processing said electrical signal and producing scan data representative of a scanned code symbol, and (g) control means for controlling the operation of said omnidirectional laser scanning engine. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27)
object detection means mounted in said scanner housing for detecting an object located in an object detection field defined external to said scanner housing and for generating a first activation signal for transmission to said control means, whereby said laser beam producing means, said laser beam sweeping means, said light receiving means and said signal processing means are automatically activated upon the detection of said object.
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Specification