Patent ID: 7086595
Filing Date: 2006-08-08
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A method of processing captured images of objects within a hand-supportable semi-automatic imaging-based bar code symbol reader so as to decode bar code symbols graphically represented therein, said method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a hand-supportable semi-automatic imaging-based bar code symbol reader including (b) automatically detecting the presence of an object within said FOV using said automatic object detection subsystem; (c) in response to object detection within step (b), automatically illuminating said object within said field of narrow-area narrow-band illumination using said LED-based multi-mode illumination subsystem; (d) forming and detecting a narrow-area digital image of the object illuminated during step (c) using said multi-mode image formation and detection subsystem operated in said narrow-area image capture mode; (e) capturing and buffering said narrow-area digital image formed and detected in step (d) using said image capture and buffering subsystem; (f) directly processing said narrow-area digital image captured and buffered during step (e) using said image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem so as to attempt to automatically read at least one 1D bar code symbol represented therein, wherein said image processing operations comprise automatically processing said captured narrow-area digital image without performing feature extraction or marking operations; (g) if at least one 1D bar code symbol is not read during step (f), and said manually-actuatable trigger switch is manually actuated, then automatically illuminating said object to be imaged within said field of wide-area narrow-band illumination using said LED-based multi-mode illumination subsystem; (h) forming and detecting a wide-area digital image of the object illuminated during step (g) using said multi-mode image formation and detection subsystem operated in said wide-area image capture mode; (i) capturing and buffering said wide-area digital image formed and detected in step (h) using said image capture and buffering subsystem; (j) automatically processing said wide-area digital image captured and buffered during step (i), using said image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem, starting from the center or middle region of said wide-area digital image of the object at which the user would have aimed said hand-supportable semi-automatic imaging-based bar code symbol reader, so as to find one or more bar code symbols represented therein, by searching in a helical manner through blocks of extracted image feature data and marking said blocks of extracted image feature data and processing the corresponding digital image data until a 1D or 2D bar code symbol is recognized/read within said captured 2D wide-area digital image; (k) if at least one 1D or 2D bar code symbol is not read during step (j), and said manually-actuatable trigger switch is still being manually actuated, then once again automatically illuminating said object to be imaged in said field of wide-area narrow-band illumination, and repeating steps (g), (h), (i) and (j) until either at least one 1D or 2D bar code symbol is read or said manually-actuatable trigger switch is no longer being manually-actuated.