Patent ID: 6845915

Claim:
A portable instrument for electro-optically reading coded indicia over an extended range of working distances, comprising: a) a housing having a size and a shape configured to be held in a user's hand during reading; b) a plurality of electrical and optical components supported by the housing, for directing a light beam along an optical path toward the indicia for reflection therefrom and for detecting light reflected from the indicia over a field of view, one of the components being movable between first and second positions in which said one of the components is operative for optically modifying at least one of the light beam and the reflected light at first and second optical areas, respectively, another of the components being an actuatable scanner for scanning said at least one of the light beam and the field of view; c) a manual actuator mounted on the housing for actuation and movement by the user, the actuator being mechanically connected to said one of the components and being operative for manually directly moving said one of the components along the optical path between the first and second positions during joint movement with the actuator to selectively optically modify said at least one of the light beam and the reflected light at the first and second optical areas, respectively, the actuator being further operative for manually actuating the scanner to initiate reading; and d) a resilient element engaged with, and compressed by movement of, said one of the components to one of the positions by the actuator, the element being operative for urging and restoring said one of the components to the other of the positions upon release of the actuator by the user.