Patent ID: 8490877

Claim:
A digital-imaging based code symbol reading system comprising: an automatic finger-pointing triggered mode of operation; a housing having a light transmission aperture; an image formation and detection subsystem, disposed in said housing, having image formation optics for producing and projecting a field of view (FOV) through said light transmission aperture and onto an area-type image detection array for detecting 2D digital images of an object present within said FOV, during object illumination and imaging operations; an illumination subsystem, disposed in said housing, including an illumination array for producing a field of illumination within said FOV, and illuminating said object detected in said FOV, so that said illumination reflects off said object and is transmitted back through said light transmission aperture and onto said image detection array to form said 2D digital image of said object; an image capturing and buffering subsystem, disposed in said housing, for capturing and buffering 2D digital images detected by said image formation and detection subsystem; a digital image processing subsystem for processing said one or more 2D digital images captured and buffered by said image capturing and buffering subsystem and reading 1D and 2D code symbols represented therein, during said automatic finger-pointing triggered mode of operation; wherein said digital image processing subsystem includes a pointing finger recognition and movement detection module, for automatically processing captured digital images buffered by said image capture and buffering subsystem, and supporting image processing operations required said automatic finger-pointing triggered mode of operation including automatically detecting the presence of a user's pointing finger and a region of interest (ROI) to which the finger is pointing, so that pixels in said ROI can be processed in order to read a code symbol graphically represented by the pixel data contained in said ROI; an input/output subsystem, disposed in said housing, for outputting processed image data to an external host system or other information receiving or responding device; and a system control subsystem, disposed in said housing, for controlling and/or coordinating said subsystems during object detection, illumination and imaging operations.