Apparatus and method for programming an optical scanner

Abstract: A programming apparatus and method for an optical scanner, is disclosed which employs bar code labels (76,78) to convert one optical scanner (40) into a mentor scanner and another optical scanner (42) into a student scanner. A lightweight housing (10) made of opaque plastic has a center portion (12) and first (14) and second (16) end portions, the center portion (12) containing a cavity (44), and the first and second end portions (14,16) containing respective apertures (22,23) therethrough and into the cavity (44). Within the cavity (44), two parallel diffusion screens (46,48) are separated by a distance sufficient to convert a light beam (50) from the mentor scanner (40) into a plurality of point sources of light for reception and detection by the student scanner (42).

Description: The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for programming an optical transceiver. Optical scanners are well known for their usefulness in retail check out and inventory control. They generally employ a laser for generating a scanning beam. An optical transceiver includes a deflecting mirror, which deflects the laser light beam against a plurality of stationary mirrors, and a collection portion, which collects the reflected light beam from the coded indicia. A motor rotates the optical transceiver, and a detector receives the returning light beam. An example of such an optical scanner is disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,971,410. Scanner programmability is now an accepted and popular feature on most optical scanners. Optical scanners may be programmed to cause any suitable function, including code type, communication mode, and baud rate to be alternated in response to the reading of a given function character. Even speaker tone may be adjusted. This programming is currently accomplished by scanning special bar code labels corresponding to a desired firmware configuration. An example of such programming method is disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,868,375. However, this method is disadvantageous in that the programming information available from the labels is restricted. Furthermore, the latter document does not disclose a specific apparatus embodying the method nor does it disclose a method or apparatus to transfer the programming information from a first scanner to a second one. It would therefore be desirable to provide programming means for programming a plurality of scanners if required. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for transferring program instructions to any number of scanners, and advantageously apparatus which is lightweight, and independent of scanner transceiver orientation. According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for transferring programming information from a first optical scanner to a second optical scanner, each scanner comprising an optical rotatable transceiver, the apparatus including a housing member having a center portion with a cavity therein and first and second end portions each arranged to receive said first or second optical scanner; each of said end portions having an aperture for optical communication between said first and second transceiver through said cavity, and means within said cavity for causing a light beam from said first transceiver to illuminate a region of said second optical scanner which is larger than the cross-sectional area of said light beam when leaving said first optical scanner. The programming apparatus may employ program labels mounted on glass sheets within the apertures to convert the one optical scanner into a mentor scanner by deactivating its motor, and to convert the other optical scanner into a student scanner by deactivating its laser and motor. In the preferred embodiment, the programming labels are bar code labels. The programming apparatus employs means which advantageously obviates the need to synchronize the positions of the optical transceivers within the scanners. According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of transferring information from a first optical scanner to a second optical scanner each comprising an optical transceiver, comprising the steps of transmitting a light beam representing said information from a first rotatable transceiver, the light beam having a first cross-sectional area; causing the light beam to have a second crosssectional area which is larger than the first cross-sectional area; and receiving said enlarged beam at a second rotatable optical transceiver. Fig. 1 is a view of an embodiment of the programming apparatus of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a side view of the programming apparatus of the present invention with a hand-held mentor scanner and a hand-held student scanner in place; and Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the programming apparatus of the present invention with hand-held mentor and student scanners in place and in operation. Turning now to Fig. 1, the preferred embodiment of the programming apparatus 10 of the present invention is shown. The programming apparatus 10 is preferably made of a lightweight opaque plastic by known methods. It has a box-like shape with a center portion 12 and left and right end portions 14 and 16. End surfaces 18 and 20 are identical and generally square in shape; however, other geometries are also envisioned. Looking at the left end portion 14, an aperture 22 extends therethrough and into the center portion 12, which is hollow. Glass 24 is a semi-transparent mirror for partially conducting and partially reflecting light from scanner 40, which also serves to separate each end portion from the center portion 12 and provides a mounting and reflecting surface for programming labels. The preferred embodiment is suited for use with the hand-held optical scanner disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 4,971,410. In the preferred embodiment, the left and right end portions 14 and 16 are also equipped with a socket for receiving the hand-held scanners. For example, socket 26 of left end portion 14 is defined by an indented surface 28, which in this embodiment has four side walls, and which conforms to the outer shape of the face portion of the scanner to be inserted into the socket 26. Each socket also includes a detent 30 around the perimeter of the socket 26 at the inner edge 32 of the indented surface 28 against which the face portion of the scanner rests. The detent 30 serves to seal out ambient light from entering the apparatus 10. Referring now to Fig. 2, the programming apparatus 10 is shown with scanners 40 and 42 in place in the sockets 26 and 27. Scanners 40 and 42 have identical components and operate using identical wavelengths of light; however, the programming apparatus 10 of the present invention transforms scanner 40 into a mentor scanner and scanner 42 into a student scanner. That is, scanner 40 contains programming to be transferred to scanner 42. Referring now to Fig. 3, the center portion 12 of the programming apparatus 10 is shown in more detail. A cavity 44 is divided into three spaces by two vertical and parallel diffusion screens 46 and 48, which are perpendicular to the light beam 50 from scanner 40. In the preferred embodiment, the diffusion screens 46 and 48 are made of diffuser or smoked glass and are generally square in shape. Also shown in Fig. 3 are some of the inner components of the scanners 40 and 42. The scanners 40 and 42 include lasers 52 and 54, motors 56 and 58 for rotating transceivers 60 and 62, a plurality of stationary mirrors 64 and 66 (only one of which is shown), and detectors 68 and 70. Triggers 72 and 74 activate the scanners 40 and 42 when engaged. The scanners 40 and 42 also employ microprocessors and sufficient firmware (not shown). These scanners are fully discussed in U.S. Patent No. 4,971,410 to Wike, Jr. The preferred embodiment of the present invention envisions the use of bar code labels for configuring optical scanners as mentor or student scanners, although switches may also be used. As shown in Fig. 3, a bar code label 76 is temporarily affixed to the outer surface of glass 24 of left end portion 14. Bar code label 76 deenergizes motor 56 and activates a modulation source within the microprocessor of scanner 40. Likewise, bar code label 78 is temporarily affixed to the outer surface of glass 25 of right end portion 16 and is read by scanner 42 to deenergize its motor 58 and laser 54. The use of bar code labels for changing the functions within an optical scanner is fully discussed in U.S. Patent No. 4,868,375. In operation, when trigger 72 is briefly engaged, scanner 40 is energized, including laser 52 and motor 56. The laser beam 50 is reflected off the stationary mirror 64 towards the glass 24 of the left end portion 14. Scanner 40 scans the program label 76 and the return beam (not shown) from the glass 24 signals the motor 56 of the scanner 40 to stop rotating. It configures scanner 40 to transmit its information. The trigger 74 of scanner 42 is also briefly engaged, thereby energizing its laser 54 and motor 58. Its beam (not shown) is sent towards the glass 25 of right end portion 16, where it also scans the gaps in the program label 78. The reflected beam (not shown) from the program label 78 puts the scanner 42 in a receive-only mode and deactivates its laser 54 and motor 58, but leaves its detector 70 operating. When the motors 56 and 58 are deactivated, the optical transceivers 60 and 62 come to a stop in random positions. For clarity, the lowest stationary mirror 64 of scanner 40 is shown and the highest stationary mirror 66 of scanner 42 is shown. Advantageously, the programming labels convert the optical scanner into a general purpose optical transceiver. After the scanners 40 and 42 are configured as mentor and student, the program labels 76 and 78 are removed and both triggers 72 and 74 are engaged. The beam 50 from scanner 40 is modulated by an information signal generated by the microprocessor within the scanner 40. The modulated beam 50 passes through the glass 24 of the left end portion 14 into the cavity 44 of the center portion 12. A first diffusion screen 46 splits the beam 50 into multiple rays 80. These rays fan out and impact the second diffusion screen 48 which generates many point sources of light 82 for the scanner 42 to receive and detect. Thus, the entire aperture 23 of the right end portion 16 is illuminated no matter where the motors 56 and 58 stop. This feature advantageously makes in-line synchronization of the positions of the transceivers 60 and 62 of the two scanners 40 and 42 unnecessary. The distance between the diffusion screens 46 and 48 is made wide enough to fully illuminate the aperture 23 of the right end portion 16 for various wavelengths of laser light. Scanners 40 and 42 are keyed to automatically change back into ordinary scanners by the end of the transmission sequence from scanner 40.

Claims: Apparatus (10) for transferring programming information from a first optical scanner (40) to a second optical scanner (42), each scanner comprising an optical rotatable transceiver (60,62), the apparatus including a housing member having a center portion (12) with a cavity therein and first and second end portions (14,16) each arranged to receive said first or second optical scanner (40,42); each of said end portions (14,16) having an aperture (22,23) for optical communication between said first and second transceiver (60,62) through said cavity, and means within said cavity for causing a light beam from said first transceiver (60) to illuminate a region of said second optical scanner (42) which is larger than the cross-sectional area of said light beam when leaving said first optical scanner (40). Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein first and second enabling means (76,78) are provided within said first (14) and second (16) end portions respectively for programming said first optical scanner (40) to transmit said programming information to said second optical scanner (42) and for programming said second optical scanner (42) to receive said programming information from said first optical scanner (40). Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said first enabling means (76) comprises first transparent means (22) within said aperture (22) in said first end portion (14) and having a first outwardly facing program label (76) mounted thereon and said second enabling means (78) comprises second transparent means (23) within said aperture (23) in said second end portion (16) and having a second outwardly facing program label (78) mounted thereon. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said means (46,48) within said cavity for increasing the cross-sectional area of the light beam comprise means for splitting said light beam into a plurality of point sources of light. Apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said means for splitting said light beam comprises a plurality of diffusion screens (46,48) arranged perpendicularly to said light beam (50) from said first optical scanner (60). Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said diffusion screens (46,48) are made of diffuser glass. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the surfaces forming said apertures (22,23) comprise means (30) for sealing ambient light from said apertures (22,23) when the optical scanner is received therein. A method of transferring programming information from a first optical scanner (40) to a second optical scanner (42) each comprising an optical transceiver (60, 62), comprising the steps of transmitting a light beam representing said information from a first rotatable transceiver (60), the light beam having a first cross-sectional area; causing the light beam to have a second cross-sectional area which is larger than the first cross-sectional area; and receiving said enlarged beam at a second (62) rotatable optical transceiver. A method according to claim 8, comprising the step of broadening the cross-sectional area of said light beam by splitting the light beam in to a plurality of point sources of light. A method according to claim 9, comprising the step of disabling the receiving means of said first transceiver (60,64) and the transmitting means of said second transceiver (62,66) prior to the transfer of said information.

Inventors: COLLINS DONALD ALEXANDER JR, MADDOX CRAIG EDWARD, WIKE CHARLES KENNETH JR, COLLINS, DONALD ALEXANDER, JR., MADDOX, CRAIG EDWARD, WIKE, CHARLES KENNETH, JR.
Applicants: NCR INT INC, NCR INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Application year: 1992
Main classification: G06K7
IPC codes: G06K1, G06K7