ARRANGEMENT FOR AND METHOD OF PROCESSING PRODUCTS AT A WORKSTATION UPGRADEABLE WITH A CAMERA MODULE FOR CAPTURING AN IMAGE OF AN OPERATOR OF THE WORKSTATION

• US 20160335856A1
• Filed: 05/12/2015
• Published: 11/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: BARKAN, EDWARD D., DRZYMALA, MARK E.
• Granted Patent: US 10,460,574 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/208 Input by product or record sensing, e.g. weighing or scanner processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/28 Recognition of hand or arm movements, e.g. recognition of deaf sign language static hand signs G06V40/113
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0009 Details of the software in the checkout register, electronic cash register [ECR] or point of sale terminal [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0054 with control of supplementary check-parameters, e.g. weight or number of articles
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/12 electronically operated digital data processing aspects G06Q20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera

Abstract

A bioptical workstation captures images of illuminated symbols with a solid-state imager. The workstation is field-upgradeable by installation of a camera module in the workstation away from the imager. The camera module captures an image of the operator through an upright window. The captured image of the illuminated symbol and the captured image of the operator are independently processed. The image of the operator is captured only with ambient light.

Claims

1. A field-upgradeable, point-of-transaction arrangement for processing products associated with symbols, comprising:

a housing having an upright window located in an upright plane, the upright window facing a scan zone in which a product is presented by an operator for processing;

an illuminating assembly supported by the housing, and operative for illuminating a symbol associated with the product in the scan zone;

an imaging assembly supported by the housing for capturing an image of the illuminated symbol, the imaging assembly including a solid-state imager having an array of image sensors with a field of view in which return illumination light from the illuminated symbol passes through and past the upright window to the imager;

a field-installable, camera module selectively mounted in the housing away from the imager, and operative for capturing an image of the operator through the upright window; and

a controller operatively connected to, and controlling, the illuminating assembly, the imager, and the camera module, and operative for independently processing the captured image of the illuminated symbol and the captured image of the operator.

2. The workstation of claim 1, wherein the housing also has a horizontal window lying in a horizontal plane that intersects the upright plane, and wherein both windows bound the scan zone in which the product is presented.

3. The workstation of claim 1, and an optical assembly for splitting the field of view of the imager into a plurality of intersecting subfields of view.

4. The workstation of claim 1, wherein the controller controls the illuminating assembly to illuminate the symbol with illumination light during illumination time periods that are spaced apart by time intervals from each other, and with no illumination light during the time intervals;

and wherein the controller controls the camera module to capture the image of the operator only during the time intervals with no illumination light.

5. The workstation of claim 4, wherein the controller controls the camera module to capture the image of the operator only during the time intervals after a predetermined number of illumination time periods have elapsed.

6. The workstation of claim 4, wherein the camera module captures the image of the operator using only ambient light.

7. The workstation of claim 1, and a manual actuator for manually deactivating the illuminating assembly, and for concomitantly actuating the camera module to capture the image of the operator.

8. The workstation of claim 1, wherein the camera module has a wide angle of view larger than about 15 degrees by about 30 degrees.

9. The workstation of claim 1, wherein the housing has a removable housing portion, and wherein the camera module is mounted inside the housing after removal of the housing portion.

10. The workstation of claim 1, wherein the camera module includes a printed circuit board, a camera on the board, and a transmitter on the board for transmitting the captured image of the operator to a remote host.

11. A point-of-transaction arrangement for processing products associated with symbols, comprising:

a housing having an upright window located in an upright plane, the upright window facing a scan zone in which a product is presented by an operator for processing;

an illuminating assembly supported by the housing, and operative for illuminating a symbol associated with the product in the scan zone;

an imaging assembly supported by the housing for capturing an image of the illuminated symbol, the imaging assembly including a solid-state imager having an array of image sensors with a field of view in which return illumination light from the illuminated symbol passes through and past the upright window to the imager;

a camera module mounted in the housing away from the imager, and operative for capturing an image of the operator through the upright window; and

a controller operatively connected to, and controlling, the illuminating assembly, the imager, and the camera module, and operative for independently processing the captured image of the illuminated symbol and the captured image of the operator, the controller being operative for controlling the illuminating assembly to illuminate the symbol with illumination light during illumination time periods that are spaced apart by time intervals from each other, and with no illumination light during the time intervals, and the controller being further operative for controlling the camera module to capture the image of the operator only during the time intervals with no illumination light.

12. A method of processing products associated with symbols, comprising:

presenting for processing, by an operator, a product in a scan zone faced by an upright window of a housing;

illuminating a symbol associated with the product in the scan zone;

capturing an image of the illuminated symbol over a field of view of a solid-state imager by passing return illumination light from the illuminated symbol through and past the upright window to the imager;

selectively mounting a camera module in the housing away from the imager;

capturing an image of the operator through the upright window with the camera module; and

independently processing the captured image of the illuminated symbol and the captured image of the operator.

13. The method of claim 12, and bounding the scan zone with a horizontal window.

14. The method of claim 12, and illuminating the symbol with illumination light during illumination time periods that are spaced apart by time intervals from each other, and not illuminating the symbol with no illumination light during the time intervals;

and capturing the image of the operator only during the time intervals with no illumination light.

15. The method of claim 14, and capturing the image of the operator only during the time intervals after a predetermined number of illumination time periods have elapsed.

16. The method of claim 14, and capturing the image of the operator using only ambient light.

17. The method of claim 12, and manually deactivating the illuminating assembly, and concomitantly actuating the camera module to capture the image of the operator.

18. The method of claim 12, and configuring the camera module with a wide angle of view larger than about 15 degrees by about 30 degrees.

19. The method of claim 12, and removing a housing portion from the housing, and mounting the camera module inside the housing after removal of the housing portion.

20. The method of claim 12, and jointly mounting a camera and a transmitter on a printed circuit board, and transmitting the captured image of the operator to a remote host.