Patent ID: 7523867

Claim:
A bar code symbol reading device that selectively operates in one of first and second scan modes, comprising: (1) a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture through which visible light can exit and enter said hand-supportable housing; wherein in said first scan mode, said bar code symbol reading device projects an omni-directional laser scanning pattern through said light transmission aperture, repeatedly detects and decodes bar code symbols on objects passing through said omni-directional laser scanning pattern, and produces a symbol character data string representative of each bar code symbol read by said barcode symbol reading device during said first scan mode, and wherein in said second scan mode, said bar code symbol reading device projects a single-line laser scanning pattern through said light transmission aperture and repeatedly detects and decodes bar code symbols on objects passing through said single-line laser scanning pattern, and produces a symbol character data string representative of each bar code symbol read by said bar code symbol reading device during said second scan mode, (2) a manually-activated data transmission switch integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for producing, when activated, a data transmission activation control signal in response to activation of said manually-activated data transmission switch; (3) a data transmission subsystem in said hand-supportable housing, for transmitting, when activated, a selected one of said produced symbol character data strings to a host device operably coupled to said bar code symbol reading device; (4) a system control subsystem for controlling said data transmission subsystem so that the symbol character data string, produced at substantially the same time when said data transmission activation control signal is generated, is transmitted to said host device, and said system control subsystem deactivating said data transmission subsystem when said data transmission activation control signal is not being produced by said manually activated data transmission switch.