Hand-supportable semi-automatic imaging-based bar code reading system wherein an led-based illumination subsystem automatically illuminates a detected target object in a narrow-area field of illumination, and illuminates the detected target object in a wide-area field of illumination upon manual activation of a trigger switch
First Claim
1. A hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading device supporting narrow-area and wide-area modes of illumination and image capture, said hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading device comprising:
- a hand-supportable housing;
a multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem having image formation optics for producing a field of view (FOV) upon a target object to be imaged and an area image sensing array for detecting imaged light reflected off the target object during illumination operations in either (i) a narrow-area image capture mode in which a few central rows of pixels on the image sensing array are enabled, or (ii) a wide-area image capture mode in which substantially all rows of the image sensing array are enabled;
a multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem for producing narrow and wide area fields of narrow-band illumination within the FOV of said image formation and detection subsystem during narrow and wide area image capture modes, respectively;
an automatic object presence detection subsystem for producing an object detection field spatially encompassed within the FOV of said multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem, and automatically detecting the presence of said target object within said FOV;
an image capturing and buffering subsystem for capturing and buffering 2D images detected by said area image sensing array in said multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem;
a multi-mode image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem for processing images captured and buffered by said image capturing and buffering subsystem and reading 1D and 2D bar code symbols represented in said captured and buffered images;
an input/output subsystem for outputting processed image data from said multi-mode image processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem; and
a system control subsystem for controlling the subsystem components described above; and
a manually-actuated trigger switch integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for generating a first control activation signal for use by said system control subsystem when activating particular subsystems to certain states of subsystem operation;
wherein,(i) when said automatic object presence detection subsystem automatically detects the presence of said target object within said FOV, said multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem automatically illuminates the target object in a narrow-area field of narrow-band illumination while said multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem captures a narrow-area image of an aligned 1D bar code symbol on the target object, and(ii) when said device is manually switched into a wide-area illumination and image capture mode upon manual actuation of said manually-actuated trigger switch, said multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem illuminates the target object in a wide-area field of narrow-band illumination, while the multi-mode image formation and detection subsystem captures a wide-area image of randomly-oriented 1D or 2D code symbols on the target object.
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Abstract
A hand-supportable Digital Imaging-Based Bar Code Symbol Reading Device comprises: an IR-based Object Presence and Range Detection Subsystem; A Multi-Mode Area-type Image Formation and Detection Subsystem having narrow-area and wide area image capture modes of operation; a Multi-Mode LED-based Illumination Subsystem having narrow-area and wide area illumination modes of operation; an Automatic Light Exposure Measurement and Illumination Control Subsystem; an Image Capturing and Buffering Subsystem; a Multi-Mode Image-Processing Bar Code Symbol Reading Subsystem; an Input/Output Subsystem; an manuallyactivatable trigger switch; a System Mode Configuration Parameter Table; and a System Control Subsystem integrated with each of the above-described subsystems. The bar code reading device can be configured and operated in numerous programmable modes of system operation to automatically read 1D and 2D bar code symbologies in a high-speed manner using advanced modes of image processing on captured images.
176 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading device supporting narrow-area and wide-area modes of illumination and image capture, said hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading device comprising:
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a hand-supportable housing; a multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem having image formation optics for producing a field of view (FOV) upon a target object to be imaged and an area image sensing array for detecting imaged light reflected off the target object during illumination operations in either (i) a narrow-area image capture mode in which a few central rows of pixels on the image sensing array are enabled, or (ii) a wide-area image capture mode in which substantially all rows of the image sensing array are enabled; a multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem for producing narrow and wide area fields of narrow-band illumination within the FOV of said image formation and detection subsystem during narrow and wide area image capture modes, respectively; an automatic object presence detection subsystem for producing an object detection field spatially encompassed within the FOV of said multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem, and automatically detecting the presence of said target object within said FOV; an image capturing and buffering subsystem for capturing and buffering 2D images detected by said area image sensing array in said multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem; a multi-mode image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem for processing images captured and buffered by said image capturing and buffering subsystem and reading 1D and 2D bar code symbols represented in said captured and buffered images; an input/output subsystem for outputting processed image data from said multi-mode image processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem; and a system control subsystem for controlling the subsystem components described above; and a manually-actuated trigger switch integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for generating a first control activation signal for use by said system control subsystem when activating particular subsystems to certain states of subsystem operation; wherein, (i) when said automatic object presence detection subsystem automatically detects the presence of said target object within said FOV, said multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem automatically illuminates the target object in a narrow-area field of narrow-band illumination while said multi-mode area image formation and detection subsystem captures a narrow-area image of an aligned 1D bar code symbol on the target object, and (ii) when said device is manually switched into a wide-area illumination and image capture mode upon manual actuation of said manually-actuated trigger switch, said multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem illuminates the target object in a wide-area field of narrow-band illumination, while the multi-mode image formation and detection subsystem captures a wide-area image of randomly-oriented 1D or 2D code symbols on the target object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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- 5. The hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading device of 4 wherein during said first mode, said multi-mode image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem starts at the center of the narrow-area frame of digital image data, and filters said narrow-area frame of digital image data at zero degrees and 180 degrees relative to the horizontal axis to generate bar-and-space count data, and then using said bar-and-space-count data, said multi-mode image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem reads the bar code symbol.
Specification