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Portable laser diode scanning head

  • US 4,825,057 A
  • Filed: 01/26/1988
  • Issued: 04/25/1989
  • Est. Priority Date: 02/28/1985
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. In an improved laser scanning system for reading symbols of the type including(A) a laser scanning head having a pair of housing parts together bounding an interior;

  • (B) means including an actuatable laser light source mounted in the interior of the head and operative, when actuated, for generating an incident laser beam;

    (C) optic means mounted in the interior of the head for optically forming and directing said incident laser beam along the first optical path toward a reference plane located exteriorly of the head, and to a symbol located in a working distance range in the vicinity of the reference plane, thereby reflecting off the symbol reflected laser light, at least a returning portion of which travels along a second optical path away from the symbol back toward the head;

    (D) scanning means mounted in the interior of the head for scanning the symbol in a scan across the symbol, said returning portion of said reflected laser light having a variable intensity over the scan;

    (E) sensor means mounted in the interior of the head for detecting the variable intensity of said returning portion of said reflected laser light over a field of view, and for generating an electrical analog signal indicative of the detected variable light intensity;

    (F) said scanning means being operative for scanning at least one of said incident laser beam and said field of view;

    (G) signal processing means mounted in the interior of the head for processing the analog electrical signal, and for generating a processed signal indicative of the symbol; and

    (H) manually-actuatable trigger means on the head and operatively connected to, and operative for actuating, the actuatable source, the scanning means, the sensor means and the signal processing means to initiate a reading of the symbol upon manual actuation of the trigger means by the user, said trigger means being actuatable for each symbol to be read, each symbol in its respective turn;

    the improvement comprising;

    (a) one of the housing parts being constituted of a light-transmissive material of one-piece construction, said one housing part having an integral window region through which at least one of said optical paths extends; and

    (b) a light-blocking cover covering said one housing part, but leaving the window region uncovered to permit at least one of said incident laser beam and said reflected laser light to pass therethrough.

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