Patent ID: 6085981
Filing Date: 2000-07-11
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
A body-wearable laser scanning system having a programmed mode of automatic operations for consecutively reading code symbols without system reactivation, said body-wearable laser scanning system comprising:housing support means wearable on the arm of an operator;a compact housing having a light transmission aperture through which visible light can exit and enter said compact housing, and being operably connected to said housing support means so that said light transmission aperture is orientable in a scanning direction;system activation means in said compact housing, for generating, during said programmed mode of automatic bar code reading, an activation signal indicative of the presence of an object in at least a portion of a scan field defined external to said compact housing;activatable scan data producing means in said compact housing for producing, when activated, scan data from said object located in at least a part of said scan field, said activatable scan data producing means includinga laser beam producing means for producing and projecting a visible laser beam through said light transmission aperture, and scanning said visible laser beam across said scan field and a code symbol on said object, andlaser light detecting means for detecting the intensity of laser light reflected off said code symbol and passing through said light transmission aperture, and for automatically producing scan data indicative of said detected light intensity;activatable scan data processing means for processing, when activated, produced scan data so as to detect and decode said scanned code symbol and automatically produce symbol character data representative of said decoded code symbol;system control means for automatically activating said activatable scan data producing means and said activatable scan data processing means in response to the generation of said activation signal, and controlling the operation thereof during said programmed mode of automatic code symbol reading such that, upon the generation of said activation symbol, two or more code symbols on one or more objects in said scan field can be consecutively detected and decoded without reactivation of said activatable scan data processing means or said activatable scan data processing means; andbattery power supply means, for supplying electrical power to said system activation means, said activatable scan data producing means, said activatable scan data processing means, said system control means.