Patent ID: 7185817
Filing Date: 2007-03-06
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading device supporting narrow-area and wide-area modes of illumination and image capture, said hand-supportable digital imaging-based bar code symbol reading device comprising: a hand-supportable housing; a multi-mode area-type image formation and detection subsystem, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, and having image formation optics for producing a field of view (FOV) upon an object to be imaged and an area-type image sensing array for detecting imaged light reflected off the object during illumination operations in either (i) a narrow-area image capture mode in which a few central rows of pixels on the area-type image sensing array are enabled, or (ii) a wide-area image capture mode in which substantially all rows of the area-type image sensing array are enabled; a multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for producing narrow and wide area fields of illumination within the FOV of said multi-mode area-type image formation and detection subsystem during narrow and wide area modes of image capture, respectively; an IR-based object presence detection subsystem, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for producing an IR-based object detection field within the FOV of said multi-mode area type image formation and detection subsystem; an image capturing and buffering subsystem for capturing and buffering 2-D images detected by said multi-mode area-type image formation and detection subsystem; a multi-mode image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for processing images captured and buffered by said image capturing and buffering subsystem and reading 1D and 2D bar code symbols represented in said images; an input/output subsystem, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for outputting processed image data to an external host system or other information receiving or responding device; and a system control subsystem, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for controlling and coordinating each said subsystem described above; wherein (i) when said IR-based object presence detection subsystem automatically detects the presence of a target object within said FOV, said system control subsystem automatically enables said multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem to automatically illuminate said target object in a narrow-area field of illumination while said multi-mode area-type image formation and detection subsystem captures a narrow-area image of an aligned bar code symbol thereon, and (ii) if during said narrow-area image capture mode, said multi-mode image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem fails to read a 1D bar code symbol on said detected target object within a predetermined time period, then said system control subsystem automatically enables said multi-mode LED-based illumination subsystem to illuminate the target object in a wide-area field of illumination, while said multi-mode area-type image formation and detection subsystem captures a wide-area image of one or more randomly-oriented 1D or 2D code symbols thereon, and said multi-mode image-processing based bar code symbol reading subsystem processes said wide-area image in order to read said one or more randomly-oriented 1D or 2D code symbols represented therein.