Portable hand-supportable data terminal with automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reader integrated therein

• US 6,772,949 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2002
• Issued: 08/10/2004
• 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, Russell, Garrett, Rockstein, George, Knowles, C. Harry, Wilz, David M. Sr., Blake, Robert E.
• Primary Examiner(s): FUREMAN, JARED
• Application Number:
  US10/116,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20020185542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.45, 235/462.14, 235/462.17, 235/462.18, 235/462.2, 235/462.25, 235/462.32, 235/462.48, 235/462.43, 235/462.44, 235/462.46, 235/462.23, 235/462.31, 235/462.01, 235/454, 235/472.01, 235/472.02, 250/271
• US Class Current: 235/462.45
• 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 7/10801 Multidistance reading
• 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 7/109 adaptations to make the hand-held scanner useable as a fixed scanner
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/14 using light without selection of wavelength, e.g. sensing reflected white light G06K7/10831 - G06K7/1097 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1443 locating of the code in an image

Abstract

A portable hand-supportable data terminal for allowing an operator to enter, collect, and display data. The data terminal comprises a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture and an automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem integrated therewithin. The bar code symbol reading subsystem includes a bar code symbol reading mechanism. Each instant a bar code symbol is read within a predetermined time period, a symbol character data string representative of the read bar code symbol is automatically produced. A manually-activatable data transmission switch generates a data transmission control activation signal in response to the activation of the switch. A system controller controls a data transmission circuit so that the symbol character data string, produced at substantially the same time when the data transmission control activation signal is generated, is transmitted to a data storage device aboard the data terminal or to a host system in communication therewith.

Claims

1. A portable hand-supportable data terminal for allowing an operator to enter, collect, and display data, said portable hand-supportable data terminal comprising:

(1) a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture and being supportable within a hand of an operator;

(2) an automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, and programmed for reading bar code symbols encoded with information, and producing symbol character data representative of said information;

(3) a manually-actuated data entry device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for manually producing character data representative of information manually entered into said portable hand-supportable data terminal;

(4) a data storage device, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for storing data collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal;

said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem including

(2)(a) a laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism automatically projecting a visible laser scanning pattern through said light transmission aperture 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,

(2)(b) a data transmission circuit, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for transmitting, when activated, a selected one of said produced symbol character data strings to either said data storage device or a host system arranged in operable communication with said portable hand-supportable data terminal,

(2)(c) a manually-activatable data transmission switch, integrated with said hand-supportable 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

(2)(d) 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 either said data storage device or said host system; and

a visual information display device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for visually displaying information collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal.

2. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises:

a computing platform, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for executing a graphical user interface (GUI) based operating system (OS) program, and providing a graphical user interface for said operator on said visual information display device.

3. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 2, said computing platform further comprises:

a GUI-based World Wide Web (WWW) browser program executable by said computing platform, for enabling access to and reading of hypertext markup language (HTML) encoded documents.

4. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 3, wherein, in response to said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem reading the bar code symbol encoded with said information, said GUI-based WWW browser program automatically accesses an HTML-encoded document specified by said information, and automatically displays said accessed HTML-encoded document on said visual information display device for viewing by the operator.

5. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said radio-frequency (RF) transceiver comprises a modem card for enabling said wireless two-way telecommunication link between said computing platform and said base station.

6. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 5, wherein said base station is a device selected from the group consisting of a cellular base station operably connected to the Internet, and a satellite-base station operably connected to the Internet.

7. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 2, which further comprises:

a radio-frequency (RF) transceiver, integrated with said hand-supportable housing and being operably connected to said computing platform, for enabling a wireless two-way telecommunication link between said computing platform and a base station operably connected to an information network.

8. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises an indicator, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for indicating each instance of when a bar code symbol is read by said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem and a symbol character data string representative thereof is produced.

9. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises an object detection subsystem disposed within said hand-supportable housing and including infrared (IR) signal transmission/receiving circuitry for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said hand-supportable housing.

10. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises an object detection subsystem disposed within said hand-supportable 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 hand-supportable housing.

11. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises a base unit remotely situated from said hand-supportable housing and operably connected to said host system, and wherein said data transmission circuit employs a wireless data packet transmission scheme to transmit said symbol character data string to said host system, via said base unit.

12. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said manually-actuated data entry device comprises a keypad integrated with said hand-supportable housing.

13. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said visual information display device comprises a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel.

14. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said visual information display device comprises a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, and said manually-actuated data entry device comprises a touch-sensitive keypad integrated with said LCD panel.

15. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a one-dimensional bar code symbol, and said automatically-acitvated laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism is programmed to read said one-dimensional bar code symbol.

16. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a two-dimensional bar code symbol, and said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism is programmed to read said two-dimensional bar code symbol.

17. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said information is a Uniform Resources Locator (URL).

18. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a one-dimensional bar code symbol, and said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism is programmed to read said one-dimensional bar code symbol.

19. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol has first and second envelope borders, and said laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism comprises a bar code symbol detector which detects said bar code symbol by detecting said first and second envelope borders.

20. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism comprises a laser diode for producing a visible laser beam.

21. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said hand-supportable housing comprises a head portion and handle portion.

22. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 21, wherein said laser scanning bar code symbol reading mechanism is disposed in said head portion.

27. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said radio-frequency (RF) transceiver comprises a modem card for enabling said wireless two-way telecommunication link between said computing platform and said base station.

28. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said base station is a device selected from the group consisting of a cellular base station operably connected to the Internet, and a satellite-base station operably connected to the Internet.

23. A portable hand-supportable data terminal for allowing an operator to enter, collect, and display data, said portablehand-supportable data terminal comprising:

(1) a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture and being supportable within a hand of an operator;

(2) an automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, and programmed for reading bar code symbols encoded with information, and producing symbol character data representative of said information;

(3) a manually-actuated data entry device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for manually producing character data representative of information manually entered into said portable hand-supportable data terminal;

(4) a data storage device, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for storing data collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal;

said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem including

(2)(a) an object detector in said hand-supportable housing, for automatically detecting said object in at least a portion of an object detection field defined relative to said housing and generating a first activation control signal (A₁) indicative of the detection of said object in at least a portion of said object detection field,

(2)(b) a laser beam producing device disposed in said hand-supportable housing for producing and projecting a laser beam through said light transmission aperture,

(2)(c) a scanning mechanism for repeatedly scanning said laser beam across a laser scanning field and across said bar code symbol on said object in said laser scanning field,

(2)(d) laser light detecting means for detecting the intensity of laser light reflected off said bar code symbol and passed through said light transmission aperture and for automatically producing scan data indicative of said detected light intensity,

(2)(e) a bar code symbol detector in said hand-supportable housing for processing produced scan data so as to detect the presence of said bar code symbol on said object and to automatically generate a second control activation signal (A₂) in response to the detection of said bar code symbol in said laser scanning field,

(2)(f) a decode processor in said hand-supportable housing for processing produced scan data so as to decode said bar code symbol on said object and for automatically producing symbol character data representative of said decoded bar code symbol, and each instant said bar code symbol is decoded, automatically generating a third control activation signal (A₃) indicative of the production of said symbol character data,

(2)(g) a manually-actuable data transmission switch integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for producing a fourth control activation signal (A₄) in response to the manual-actuation of said manually-actuable data transmission switch,

(2)(h) a data transmission circuit in said hand-supportable housing, for transmitting said symbol character data to either said data storage device or a host system arranged in operable communication with said portable hand-supportable data terminal only in response to the occurrence of at least said third and fourth control activation signals, and

(2)(i) 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 data storage device or said host system; and

(5) a visual information display device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for visually displaying information collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal.

24. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, which further comprises a Computing platform, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for executing a graphical user interface (GUI) based operating system (OS) program, and providing a graphical user interface for said operator on said visual information display device.

25. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, said computing platform further comprises:

a graphical user interface (GUI) based world wide web (WWW) browser program executed by said computing platform, for accessing and reading hyptertext markup language (HTML) encoded documents.

26. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 25, wherein, in response to said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem reading the bar code symbol encoded with said information, said GUI-based WWW browser program automatically accesses an HTML-encoded document specified by said information, and automatically displays said accessed HTML-encoded document on said visual information display device for review by the operator.

29. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, which further comprises:

a radio-frequency (RF) transceiver, integrated with said hand-supportable housing and being operably connected to said computing platform, for enabling a wireless two-way telecommunication link between said computing platform and a base station operably connected to an information network.

30. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, which further comprises an indicator, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for indicating each instance of when a bar code symbol is read by said an automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem and a symbol character data string representative thereof is produced.

31. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said object detector includes infrared (IR) signal transmission/receiving circuitry for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said hand-supportable housing.

32. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 31, wherein said object detector includes a low-power non-visible laser beam signaling mechanism for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said hand-supportable housing.

33. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, which further comprises a base unit remotely situated from said hand-supportable housing and operably connected to said host system, and wherein said data transmission circuit employs a wireless data packet transmission scheme to transmit said symbol character data string to said host system, via said base unit.

34. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said manually-actuated data entry device comprises a keypad integrated with said hand-supportable housing.

35. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said visual information display device comprises a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel.

36. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 35, wherein said system control circuitry automatically controls the operation of said automatic bar code symbol reading system in response to the generation of said first, second, third and fourth control activation signals.

37. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said visual information display device comprises a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, and said manually-actuated data entry device comprises a touch-sensitive keypad integrated with said LCD panel.

38. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a one-dimensional bar code symbol, and said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem is programmed to read said one-dimensional bar code symbol.

39. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a two-dimensional bar code symbol, and said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem is programmed to read said two-dimensional bar code symbol.

40. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said information is a Uniform Resources Locator (URL).

41. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said bar code symbol has first and second envelope borders, and said bar code symbol detector detects said bar code symbol by detecting said first and second envelope borders.

42. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said object detector comprises

a signal transmitter for transmitting a signal towards said object in said object detection field, and

a signal receiver for receiving said transmitted signal reflected off said object in at least a portion of said object detection field, and automatically generating said activation signal indicative of the detection of said object in at least a portion of said laser scanning field.

43. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 42, wherein said signal transmitter comprises an infra-red light source for transmitting a pulsed infra-red light signal, and wherein said signal receiver comprises an infra-red light detector disposed in said hand-supportable housing.

44. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 42, wherein said signal transmitter comprises a laser diode for transmitting a pulsed laser signal, and wherein said signal receiver comprises a photodetector disposed in said hand-supportable housing.

45. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 23, wherein said laser beam producing device comprises a laser diode for producing a visible laser beam.