Patent Document ID: 5574804
Application ID: 08161762

Base Claim:
1. A hand-held scanner for reading characters arranged in a plurality of lines recorded on a substrate, the scanner comprising: a housing having an elongate shape with a scanning end and a rear end; first optical means for viewing a first area of view on the substrate adjacent the scanning end of said housing when said housing is oriented with respect to the substrate such that the scanning end of said housing is adjacent the substrate and the rear end of said housing is lifted off away from the substrate; second optical means for viewing a second area of view on the substrate adjacent a side of said housing when said housing is oriented with respect to the substrate such that the side of said housing is adjacent the substrate, wherein a longest dimension of the second area of view is at least several times longer than a longest dimension of the first area of view; and optical detector means, located within said housing, for detecting relative intensity of light reflected from each of a plurality of points in one of the first and second areas of view; wherein the scanning end of said housing is moved along a line of characters to read the characters through the first area of view and wherein the side of said housing is moved over the substrate line by line to read the characters through the second area of view.

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Claim 9:
9. The scanner of claim 1 further comprising a comparator coupled to said optical detector means for receiving signals corresponding to the relative intensity of light from said optical detector means to determine whether each such signal is above or below an intensity threshold and means for setting the intensity threshold responsive to the relative intensities of points in an area of view being scanned.