Patent ID: 6036094
Filing Date: 2000-03-14
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
A lightweight, easy to grasp and manipulate hand-held optical scanning device for scanning and digitizing image data from a two-dimensional bar code symbol for subsequent decoding in a host computer, wherein said two-dimensional bar code symbol is encoded with data and comprises areas of different light reflectivity; said scanning device comprising:(a) a housing configured to be easily grasped by the hand of a user, said housing including:(i) a roller on a bottom portion thereof for allowing the optical scanning device to be placed on a substrate and rolled towards a user; and(ii) a front portion having a flat surface running along the width of said front portion and providing a substantially straight edge for alignment of said scanning device with respect to the bar code;(b) a symbol illumination window located on the bottom portion of the housing;(c) symbol illuminator located within the housing for providing flood illumination directly through the symbol illumination window and onto the symbol;(d) a solid state photosensor array for capturing thereon an image of at least part of the bar code symbol and producing analog waveforms with amplitudes proportional to the relative positions of the areas of different light reflectivity of the bar code symbol, said photosensor array positioned within the housing at an area located substantially over the symbol illumination window such that a substantially vertical optical path is defined by the symbol illumination window and the photosensor array;(e) a rotation detector, coupled to the roller, for detecting rotation of the roller and for controlling the photosensor array to output successive analog waveforms at predetermined intervals of rotation;(f) a digitizer for processing the analog waveforms and producing digital bar patterns corresponding thereto; and(g) a transmitter for transmitting the digital bar patterns to a host computer,whereby the digital bar patterns may be decoded by the host computer to produce a data file corresponding to the data encoded in the two-dimensional bar code symbol.