Laser scanning device for printed product identification codes

• US 7,457,007 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2004
• Issued: 11/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Limited
• Original Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Limited
• Inventors: Silverbrook, Kia, Lapstun, Paul, Rusman, Jan
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, II, Jerome
• Application Number:
  US10/815,609
• Publication Number:
  US 20040196501A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,698 Days
• Field of Search: 358/473, 358/475, 358/509, 358/510, 358/513, 358/480, 358/482, 382/313, 382/321, 235/462.01, 235/462.14, 235/462.24, 235/462.25, 235/462.38, 235/462.39, 235/462.32, 235/462.33, 235/472.01, 235/472.02
• US Class Current: 358/473
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0321 by optically sensing the absolute position with respect to a regularly patterned surface forming a passive digitiser, e.g. pen optically detecting position indicative tags printed on a paper sheet constructional details of pen-shaped pointing devices G06F3/03545, G06F3/03542, G06F3/037
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10554 Moving beam scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10623 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10693 for omnidirectional scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10772 Moved readers, e.g. pen, wand
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0212 Chance discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/59 by controlling the amount of charge storable in the pixel, e.g. modification of the charge conversion ratio of the floating node capacitance
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/671 for non-uniformity detection or correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/745 : Circuitry for generating timing or clock signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/75 : Circuitry for providing, modifying or processing image signals from the pixel array
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/767 : Horizontal readout lines, multiplexers or registers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/778 : comprising amplifiers shared between a plurality of pixels, i.e. at least one part of the amplifier must be on the sensor array itself
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 3/1568 : for disturbance correction or prevention within the image-sensor, e.g. biasing, blooming, smearing correction circuits H04N25/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/33 : Transforming infrared radiation cameras or camera modules for generating image signals from infrared radiation H04N23/20; circuitry of SSIS for transforming infrared radiation into image signals H04N25/20

Abstract

A laser scanning device adapted to scan an interface surface provided on a product item, the interface surface having disposed thereon or therein coded data which includes, at a plurality of locations on the interface surface, a corresponding plurality of coded data portions, each coded data portion being indicative of an identity of the product item, the product item being provided in a sensing region, the scanning device including: a laser for emitting at least one scanning beam, the scanning beam being directed in first and second orthogonal directions to thereby generate a raster scan pattern over a scanning patch, the scanning patch being provided in the sensing region such that it exposes at least one coded data portion; a sensor for sensing the at least one exposed coded data portion; and a processor for determining, using at least some of the sensed coded data, product identity data indicative of the identity of the product item.

Claims

1. A laser scanning device adapted to scan an interface surface provided on a product item, the interface surface having disposed thereon or therein coded data portions at a plurality of locations on the interface surface, each coded data portion containing coded data indicative of an identity of the product item, an identity of the interface surface and the position of the coded data portion, the scanning device including:

a laser for emitting at least one scanning beam, the scanning beam being directed in first and second orthogonal directions to thereby generate a raster scan pattern over a scanning patch, the scanning patch being provided on the interface surface such that it exposes at least one coded data portion;

a sensor for sensing the at least one exposed coded data portion; and

a processor for;

determining, using at least some of the sensed coded data, product identity data indicative of the identity of the product item;

determining the identity of the interface surface;

determining position data representing a position of the sensed coded data portion on the interface surface;

determining a description of the interface surface using the determined identity; and

identifying the at least one region from the description and the position data.

2. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the coded data encodes an EPC associated with the product item, and wherein the processor determines the EPC.

3. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the product identity data distinguishes the product item from every other product item.

4. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the processor:

determines the product identity data of the product item during a scan event; and

,

determines whether the determined product identity data is different to product identity data determined during previous scan events.

5. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the coded data is redundantly encoded.

6. The scanning device of claim 5, wherein the processor is adapted to use the redundantly encoded coded data to detect one or more errors in the coded data.

7. The scanning device of claim 6, wherein, in response to the detection of one or more errors, the scanning device performs at least one of:

(a) correcting the one or more detected errors;

(b) signaling a failed scan; and

,

(c) ignoring the coded data.

8. The scanning device of claim 5, wherein the coded data is redundantly encoded using Reed-Solomon encoding.

9. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the coded data is indicative of a plurality of reference points.

10. The scanning device of claim 9, wherein each reference point corresponds to a respective location on the interface surface, and wherein the processor generates position data representing the position of a sensed reference point on the interface surface.

11. The scanning device of claim 1 further including at least one deflector for deflecting the scanning beam.

12. The scanning device of claim 11, wherein the at least one deflector includes at least one of:

a rotating holographic element;

first and second acousto-optic deflectors; and

,

resonant scanning mirrors.

13. The scanning device of claim 12 further including an amplitude modulator, positioned between the laser and the at least one deflector, for modulating the amplitude of the scanning beam.

14. The scanning device of claim 13, wherein the scanning device:

determines from radiation sensed by the sensor, using the modulation of the scanning beam, ambient light incident on the sensor;

determines from radiation sensed by the sensor, using the determined ambient light incident on the sensor, the radiation reflected from the interface surface; and

,

senses the coded data from the radiation reflected from the interface surface.

15. The scanning device of claim 13 further including a focusing element positioned between the amplitude modulator and the at least one deflector for focussing the beam.

16. The scanning device of claim 11 further including at least one beam controller for selectively providing the scanning patch at one of a number of positions in the sensing region.

17. The scanning device of claim 16, wherein the beam controller comprises:

a first mirror;

a plurality of second mirrors; and

,

a controller which controls the position of the first mirror to thereby reflect the scanning beam from a selected one of the second mirrors into the sensing region.

18. The scanning device of claim 17, wherein each second mirror defines at least one patch beam path, and wherein the controller controls the position of the first mirror to thereby direct the scanning beam along a selected patch beam path.

19. The scanning device of claim 1, the coded data being disposed on or in a substrate in accordance with at least one layout, the layout having at least order n rotational symmetry, where n is at least two, the layout encoding orientation-indicating data comprising a sequence of an integer multiple m of n symbols, where m is one or more, each encoded symbol being distributed at n locations about a centre of rotational symmetry of the layout such that decoding the symbols at each of the n orientations of the layout produces n representations of the orientation-indicating data, each representation comprising a different cyclic shift of the orientation-indicating data and being indicative of the degree of rotation of the layout.

20. The scanning device of claim 19, wherein each coded data portion has a plurality of codewords arranged in accordance with a respective layout, the plurality of codewords being indicative of the identity of the product item.

21. The scanning device of claim 20, wherein the coded data includes a plurality of layouts of two or more layout types, each layout encoding its layout type.

22. The scanning device of claim 21, wherein each layout encodes a distributed codeword wherein fragments of the distributed codeword are distributed between the two or more layout types in a predetermined manner such that the distributed codeword can be reconstructed from fragments located in a plurality of adjacent layouts of different types.

23. The scanning device of claim 1, the coded data being disposed on or in a substrate in accordance with at least one layout, the layout having at least order n rotational symmetry, where n is at least two, the layout including n identical sub-layouts rotated 1/n revolutions apart about a centre of rotational symmetry of the layout, the coded data disposed in accordance with each sub-layout including rotation-indicating data that distinguishes the rotation of that sub-layout from the rotation of at least one other sub-layout within the layout.

24. The coded data of claim 23, wherein the rotation-indicating data of each sub-layout is adapted to distinguish the rotation of the sub-layout from the rotation of each other sub-layout.

25. The scanning device of claim 23, wherein each coded data portion has a plurality of codewords arranged in accordance with a respective layout, the plurality of codewords being indicative of the identity of the product item.

26. The scanning device of claim 25, wherein each sub-layout has at least one codeword that is different to the codeword of each other sub-layout.

27. The scanning device of claim 25, wherein each layout has at least one codeword that is different to at least one codeword of at least one other layout.

28. The scanning device of claim 25, wherein each layout has at least one codeword that is identical to at least one codeword of at least one other layout.

29. The scanning device of claim 25, wherein each codeword is formed from a number of data elements arranged in accordance with a respective sub-layout.

30. The scanning device of claim 29, wherein the data elements are arranged such that each data element has a unique position.

31. The scanning device of claim 30, wherein the positions of the data elements of respective sub-layouts are interleaved.

32. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the scanning device is provided in a shopping receptacle, the shopping receptacle being adapted to receive and retain a product item, and wherein the scanning device senses at least some of the coded data on the interface surface of the product item when the product item is at least one of:

(a) removed from the receptacle; and

,

(b) placed in the receptacle.

33. The scanning device of claim 32, wherein the receptacle is at least one of:

(a) a shopping trolley;

(b) a shopping cart; and

,

(c) a shopping basket.

34. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the coded data is printed on the interface surface in infrared ink, and the scanning beam is an infrared scanning beam.

35. The scanning device of claim 1, wherein the scanning device further includes a memory for storing the product identity.