Patent ID: 7364080

Claim:
A method, comprising: generating a digitized bar pattern (DBP) including a series of elements corresponding to elements of a scanned bar code; identifying a first set of margins around a first portion of the series of elements; when an attempt to decode the first portion is unsuccessful, analyzing the first portion to determine a second set of margins around a second portion of the series of elements, the second set of margins being within the first set of margins, wherein the analyzing includes identifying a center element in the first portion and determining a narrow width of a narrowest element and a wide width of a widest element width within a predetermined number of elements of the center element; wherein the determining elements in the first portion includes computing a reference pair width as a function of the narrow width and the widest width and computing a pair width for each element pair between the first set of margins; and inputting the second portion to a decoding algorithm.