Automatically-activated code symbol reading system

• US 7,611,063 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2007
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1990
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Rockstein, George B., Russell, Garrett, Schmidt, Mark, Wilz, David M. Sr., Blake, Robert E., Colavito, Stephen J., Hudrick, Donald T., Knowles, Carl Harry
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim; Ahshik
• Application Number:
  US11/890,524
• Publication Number:
  US 20080041962A1
• Time in Patent Office: 820 Days
• Field of Search: 253/462.45, 253/462.48, 253/462.01, 253/462.09, 253/472.01
• US Class Current: 235/462.45
• 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

An automatically-activated code symbol reading system includes a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture through which a field of view (FOV) passes; and an automatically-activated bar code symbol reading mechanism for repeatedly reading code symbols on an object in the FOV, within a predetermined time period, and in response to each new successful reading of the code symbols, producing a new symbol character data string representative of the read code symbol. A system control subsystem (i) automatically activates the automatically-activated bar code symbol reading mechanism in response to the detection of the object in at least a portion of the FOV, and (ii) automatically activates the data transmission circuit in response to the generation of the data transmission control activation signal so that a symbol character data string, produced currently with or immediately subsequent to the activation of the manually-activatable data transmission switch, is transmitted to a host system.

Claims

1. An automatically-activated code symbol reading system, comprising:

a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture through which a field of view (FOV) passes;

an automatic object detection subsystem disposed in said hand-supportable housing for automatically detecting the presence of an object in at least a portion of said FOV;

an automatically-activated code symbol reading mechanism, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for repeatedly reading one or more code symbols on an object in said FOV, within a predetermined time period, and in response to each new successful reading of one of said code symbols within said predetermined time period, producing a new symbol character data string representative of said read code symbol;

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 a host system operably connected to said automatically-activated code symbol reading system;

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

a system control subsystem for (i) automatically activating said automatically-activated code symbol reading mechanism in response to the detection of said object in at least a portion of said FOV, and (ii) automatically activating said data transmission circuit in response to the generation of said data transmission control activation signal so that a symbol character data string, produced currently with or immediately subsequent to the activation of said manually-activatable data transmission switch, is transmitted to said host system.

2. The automatically-activated code symbol reading system of claim 1, wherein said automatic object detection subsystem comprises an infrared light source for producing an infrared light beam that is projected into said FOV, and an infrared light detector for detecting at least a portion of said infrared light beam reflected and/or scattered off the object in at least a portion of said FOV.

3. The automatically-activated code symbol reading system of claim 1, wherein said automatically-activated code symbol reading mechanism comprises:

(i) a laser beam source for producing and projecting a laser beam through said light transmission aperture,

(ii) a laser scanning mechanism for repeatedly scanning said laser beam across said FOV and across said bar code symbol on said object in said FOV, and

(iii) a laser light detector for detecting the intensity of laser light reflected off said code symbol and passed through said light transmission aperture and for automatically producing scan data indicative of said detected light intensity;

(3) a code symbol detector in said hand-supportable housing for processing produced scan data so as to detect the presence of said code symbol on said object; and

(4) decode processor 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 code symbol.

4. The automatically-activated code symbol reading system of claim 1, wherein said one or more code symbols include 1D and 2D bar code symbols.

5. The automatically-activated code symbol reading system of claim 1, which further comprises an indicator, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for indicating each instance of when a code symbol is read by said automatically-activated code symbol reading mechanism and a symbol character data string representative of the read code symbol is produced automatically-activated by said code reading mechanism.

6. The automatically-activated code symbol reading system of claim 1, which further comprises

a hand-held mode of automatic operation and a countertop-supported mode of automatic operation;

and

a mode selection mechanism integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for generating said data transmission control activation signal in response to said hand-supportable housing being placed in a scanner stand or on a countertop surface.