Patent ID: 8387878

Claim:
A point-of-transaction workstation operative to process products by electro-optically imaging indicia associated with the products, comprising: a housing; at least two substantially orthogonal windows supported by the housing; at least two solid state imagers supported by the housing and having an adjustable exposure, the at least one imager having an array of image sensors looking at a field of view that extends through the at least one window to the indicia to be imaged; at least one proximity system, said proximity system comprising an emitter and sensor located externally of the at least one imager, and operative to detect a product in the field of view; an illumination system supported by the housing and operative, in response to the detection of the product in the field of view, to illuminate the field of view with illumination light over an adjustable illumination time, the at least two solid-state imagers being operative to capture return illumination light from the indicia; and a controller operatively connected to the at least one imager, the illumination system, and the at least one proximity system, operative to adjust at least one of the illumination time of the illumination system and the exposure of the at least one imager in response to the detection of the product by the at least one proximity system and a comparison of illumination of the emitter received at the sensor from the indicia with stored threshold illumination data, and operative to process the captured illumination light in the field of view; and further comprising an optical system operative to split the field of view of at least one of the imagers into a plurality of subfields of view that simultaneously extend through the at least one window over regions of the product, and wherein the illumination system includes a plurality of illuminators, one for each subfield of view.