Patent ID: 7398930

Claim:
A method for operating a hand held bar code reading device for reading of a bar code symbol disposed on a substrate, the method comprising: (a) providing an image sensor that includes a plurality of light responsive elements (b) providing optics for focusing light returning from said bar code symbol onto said image sensor; (c) providing a first memory space for storing digital image data of a first format, the first format being a bit image format; (d) providing a second memory space for storing digital image data of a second format, the second format being a timercount format; (e) developing a video signal from said image sensor; (f) simultaneously deriving first digital image data and second digital image data from the video signal, the first digital image data having a first format and the second digital image data having a second format; (g) storing said first digital image data into said first memory space, and said second digital image data into said second memory space, the first and second digital image data being stored so that both of the first and second digital image data represent a two dimensional area of said substrate; and (h) executing bar code symbol decoding processes utilizing both said first digital image data of said first format stored into said first memory space and said second digital image data of said second format stored into said second memory space.