Patent ID: 7559474

Claim:
An automatic omni-directional bar code symbol reading system for use in a POS environment, comprising: a system housing having a horizontal housing section with a first light transmission window, and a vertical housing section with a second light transmission window; a plurality of linear-type bar code symbol reading stations disposed within said horizontal and vertical housing sections, for generating and projecting a complex of linear illumination planes through said first and second light transmission windows and into a 3D volume definable relative to said horizontal and vertical housing sections; at least one area-type bar code reading station disposed in said horizontal housing section, for generating and projecting an area illumination beam through said first light transmission window and into said 3D volume along with said linear illumination planes, wherein said linear illumination planes and said area illumination beam support the omni-directional reading of bar code symbols on an object passing through said 3D volume, and the generation symbol character data representative of the read bar code symbols; an object detection subsystem, disposed in said system housing, for automatically detecting said object passing through said 3D volume, and generating data representative of the object detected within said 3D volume; and a control subsystem, disposed in said system housing, for controlling operations within said linear-type and area-type bar code symbol reading stations, using data derived from said data generated by said object detection subsystem.