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;
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 pivotal seating thereon, 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.
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0 Petitions
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 is 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.
13 Citations
28 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;
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 pivotal seating thereon, 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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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13. 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 pivotal seating thereon, 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 rotatably supported in said opening of said base unit with the downwardly protruding neck slidably engaged by said pair of guide rails, said guide rails permitting said head to pivot about a horizontal axis while doubly supporting said head 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.
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24. 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, (b) base unit having an upwardly curved opening, a pair of opposing guide members mounted in said base unit, wherein said neck portion of said scanning head is inserted into said base unit and is slidingly supported by said guide members;
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.
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Specification