Patent ID: 8424767

Claim:
A bar code reader operable to read bar codes comprising: a housing including two or more transparent windows and defining a housing interior region enabling a target object swiped or presented in relation to the transparent windows can be evaluated for a presence of a bar code; a plurality of cameras supported within the interior region of the housing, each camera having both an image capture sensor global shutter array operable to capture an image of a bar code within an associated camera field of view and a corresponding light source operable to illuminate said field of view associated with said camera; and a processing system coupled to the plurality of cameras, the processing system operable to decode a bar code carried by the target object from images captured by the plurality of cameras, said processor sequentially activating the light source of each given camera selected from the plurality of cameras in synchronism with activating an exposure by the image capture sensor array of the each given camera to allocate different time segments within an image frame period to different cameras amongst the plurality of cameras; and a sensor operable to automatically determine an optical characteristic of at least one of the two or more transparent windows and wherein the processing system presets a maximum exposure time for the cameras whose field of view extends through said at least one window based on the optical characteristic before automatically adjusting for each of the fields of view, an illumination flash duration operable for activating the corresponding light source, and wherein the bar code reader is operable to decode the bar codes.