Patent ID: 7918398

Claim:
A bar code reading terminal comprising: an image sensor having a plurality of pixels; a multiple setting imaging lens assembly for focusing an image of target bar code onto an active surface of said image sensor, the multiple setting imaging lens assembly having a plurality of lens elements, the multiple setting imaging lens assembly having a plurality of lens settings; a hand held housing, wherein said image sensor is disposed within said hand held housing; wherein said terminal is adapted so that responsively to a trigger signal of said terminal being made active, said terminal captures at least a certain and subsequently a subsequent frame of image data, said certain frame of image data representing light incident on pixels of said image sensor during a certain exposure period, said subsequent frame of image data representing light incident on pixels of said image sensor during a subsequent exposure period occurring after said certain exposure period; wherein said terminal is further adapted so that said imaging lens assembly has a first lens setting during said certain exposure period and a second lens setting during said subsequent exposure period; wherein said terminal is further adapted so that said terminal in an active reading state subjects each of said certain and subsequent frames of image data to a decode attempt for attempting to decode said target bar code, the terminal attempting to decode said certain frame of image data during a certain decoding period and attempting to decode said subsequent frame of image data during a subsequent decoding period; wherein said multiple setting imaging lens assembly is adapted so that said plurality of lens settings of said multiple setting imaging lens assembly are facilitated by movement of at least one lens element during a motion period of said multiple setting imaging lens assembly; and wherein said terminal in an active reading state is adapted in such manner that at least one of said certain and subsequent decoding periods is coincident with a motion period of said multiple setting imaging lens assembly so that said terminal in an active reading state moves at least one lens element of said multiple setting imaging lens assembly to achieve a different lens setting while simultaneously processing image data to attempt to decode said target bar code.