Patent ID: 7942329

Claim:
An auto-identification user feedback system, comprising: an optical imager for capturing an image of a target and reading a barcode at the target; a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader for interrogating said target and reading an RFID tag at the target; an illumination source associated with said optical imager and aligned to emit light of a first color and a second color onto said target before and after the reading; and a microcontroller interconnected to said imager, said reader, and said illumination source, wherein said microcontroller is programmed to operate said illumination source to emit light of said first color onto said target when the RFID reader successfully reads said target and is further programmed to operate said illumination source to emit light of said second color onto said target when said RFID reader unsuccessfully reads a target; a host interface for interconnecting said microcontroller to a host device; and wherein said microcontroller is further programmed to include a serial command interpreter for interpreting serial commands received from said host device through said host interface and triggering the operation of said optical imager and said RFID reader based on said host serial commands and then sending data to said host device through said host interface, wherein the imager, RFID reader, illumination source, and microcontroller are all contained within a device of the system; and wherein said received serial commands cause said device to read at the target via the optical imager and RFID reader without human input at the device for commencing the reading.