Patent ID: 7503492

Claim:
An optical information reading apparatus comprising: image pickup means having a two-dimensional imaging visual field for capturing an image of a reading objective containing an information code recorded thereon; guide light irradiating means for irradiating a guide light on said reading objective to indicate a reading portion; and processing mean for performing read processing of said information code based on the image picked up by said image pickup means, wherein the guide light emitted from said guide light irradiating means indicates a two-dimensional region as the reading portion, the two-dimensional portion is narrower than said imaging visual field, detecting means is provided for detecting an irradiated position of said guide light on said imaging visual field of said image pickup means, and said processing means primarily selects an information code entirely contained in said two-dimensional region as a read processing objective based on detection result of said detecting means, when a plurality of codes are present in the two-dimensional region indicated by said guide light.