Bar code for measuring distance and position

• US 6,845,912 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2002
• Issued: 01/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Thomas Whittier Scannell
• Original Assignee: Thomas Whittier Scannell
• Inventors: Scannell, Thomas Whittier
• Primary Examiner(s): PAIK, STEVE S
• Application Number:
  US10/318,919
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111911A1
• Time in Patent Office: 775 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.01, 235/462.02, 235/462.04, 235/462.07, 235/462.08, 235/462.16, 235/494
• US Class Current: 235/462.01
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 5/2492 Pulse stream
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 1/308 with additional pattern means for determining the absolute position, e.g. reference marks

Abstract

A numeric code has 10 characters in its set, each character having two dark bars in nine modules or a “Two of Nine Code”. All bars or gaps of this code are a minimum of two modules in width. Each numeric digit may have and OCR digit embedded into the barcode digit to make it human and machine readable.

Claims

1. A 2 of 9 bar code system for representing 10 characters, each character comprising:

a set of barcode digits comprising two bars and one space;

the total width of the bars and spaces being 9×

; and

each bar and space having a width that is at least 2× and

no greater than 5×

.

2. A bar code system according to claim 1 where the 2 of 9 bar code system represents numbers having one or more digits.

3. A bar code system according to claim 2 where each of the one or more digits is separated from an adjacent digit by a space at least 1×

wide.

4. A bar code system according to claim 1 where a machine readable character is associated with each character represented by the bar code system.

5. A bar code system according to claim 4 where the machine readable characters are read by optical character recognition software.

6. A bar code system according to claim 1 where the bars are magnetic media.