Patent ID: 7165543

Claim:
An arrow rest mountable to an archery bow for supporting an archery arrow with respect to the archery bow, the arrow rest comprising: an optical sensor mountable with respect to a body of the archery bow, an emitter of the optical sensor emitting a light signal at a shaft of the archery arrow positioned on the arrow rest, the optical sensor having a receiver for sensing a reference mark on the shaft with the archery arrow at a holding position, a transducer transmitting a position signal in response to the optical sensor sensing the reference mark; a signal processor in electrical communication with the optical sensor and receiving the position signal transmitted by the transducer, the signal processor generating an output signal in response to the position signal; and a release element in responsive communication with the output signal, the release element actuatable in response to the output signal to move at least one support prong of the arrow rest between an arrow support position and an arrow release position, the reference mark comprising a bar code, the bar code being asymmetric, the receiver sensing the bar code and the transducer transmitting the position signal to the signal processor, and the signal processor determining whether the archery arrow moves in a draw direction with respect to the archery bow or a release direction which is opposite the draw direction, and generating the output signal.