Patent ID: 7510118

Claim:
A bar code symbol scanning system comprising: at least one laser light source for generating a plurality of laser scanning beams; optical elements for projecting said plurality of laser scanning beams into a scanning volume at different orientations for scanning one or more bar code symbols on objects within the scanning volume, collecting light reflections from said laser scanning beams, and directing these light reflections to a plurality of photosensors corresponding in number to the plurality of laser scanning beams and producing electrical signals corresponding to light reflections from the scanned bar code symbols; signal processing circuitry operably, coupled to the output of said photosensors, for processing said electrical signals and detecting and decoding the bar code symbols scanned by the laser scanning beams; timing signal generation circuitry for generating timing signals that correspond to successive non-overlapping time slots, wherein each said laser scanning beam and corresponding photosensor is logically assigned to one of said successive non-overlapping time slots; a laser light source control mechanism for operating, during a given time slot, in response to the timing signals generated by said timing signal generation circuitry, so as to selectively enable one said laser scanning beam, logically assigned to the given time slot, to be generated and/or projected into said scanning volume; and a signal processing control mechanism for operating, during the given time slot, in response to the timing signals generated by said timing signal generation circuitry, so as to selectively enable one said photosensor, logically assigned to the given time slot, to be operably coupled to said signal processing circuitry.