Patent ID: 8251291

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting a rotational bar code comprising: a rotatable structure at least a portion of which includes a cylindrical surface having at least one of an outward-facing surface and an inward-facing surface, the surfaces radially disposed about a rotational axis of the cylindrical surface; a plurality of vertically-oriented symbols horziontally abutted in a non-periodic unique pattern on one of the outward-facing surface or the inward facing surface, wherein the vertically-oriented symbols are unique for at least a predefined segment of an arc of the cylindrical surface; at least one bar code scanner positioned to sense at least a portion of light reflected from the cylindrical surface, the bar code scanner operable to output data indicative of at least one of the plurality of vertically-oriented symbols from which the light is reflected; and a camera rigidly attached to the rotatable structure, wherein the rotatable structure and the camera have rotational axes aligned with the rotational axis of the cylindrical surface so that an optical axis of the camera perpendicularly intersects the aligned rotational axes and a center line of a calibrated vertically-oriented symbol, wherein the rotatable structure and the camera share a rigidly-held angular orientation with respect to the rotational axis of the cylindrical surface, wherein an angular orientation of the cylindrical surface and an orientation of the optical axis of the camera are identifiable by the output data.