Psc Inc.

Photographic Sciences Corporation

Optel Systems Inc.

Colorvision Administrative Ag

Skan-A-Matic Corp.

Cv US, Inc.

Optel System Limited

John A Boles

Jay M Eastman

Scott R Grodevant

Anna M Quinn

Roger J Greenwald

William J Fox

Cormic K Merle

David Slocum

Robert J Hutchison

Dean S White

Robert J Hutchinson

Randall K Hems

Justin R Louise

Dusty L Quick

Cormic K Merkle

Kevork Arackellian

A colorimeter capable of calibrating color monitors, whether having cathode ray tube or liquid crystal (LCD) displays, is provided by a photometric array of photodetector and optical filter pairs. The filters include long-pass, edge filters which cover overlapping regions at the upper end of the visible spectrum and a filter which covers the entire visible spectrum. The outputs of the photodetectors are digitally synthesized to provide a response which mimics the response established by the Commission Internationale de 1&prime;Eclairage (CIE) xyz (bar) functions almost perfectly. The response which is mimicked may be represented by the CIE color matching functions. The pairs and the associated components are mounted on a printed circuit board captured in a clamshell housing and having an array of apertures which define angularly constrained fields of view of a surface from which the light, to be colormetrically analyzed, emanates. The printed circuit board includes a field programmable gate array programmed to read data from the plurality of filter/detector pairs in parallel. The colorimeter is capable generally of measuring the color characteristics, especially the color temperatures of radiation radiating and reflecting bodies (sources), including so-called black bodies.

Colorimeter having field programmable gate array

A colorimeter capable of calibrating color monitors, whether having cathode ray tube or liquid crystal (LCD) displays, is provided by a photometric array of photodetector and optical filter pairs. The filters include long-pass, edge filters which cover overlapping regions at the upper end of the visible spectrum and a filter which covers the entire visible spectrum. The outputs of the photodetectors are digitally synthesized to provide a response which mimics the response established by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) xyz (bar) functions almost perfectly. The response which is mimicked may be represented by the CIE color matching functions. The pairs and the associated components are mounted on a printed circuit board captured in a clamshell housing and having an array of apertures which define angularly constrained fields of view of a surface from which the light, to be colormetrically analyzed, emanates. The colorimeter is capable generally of measuring the color characteristics, especially the color temperatures of radiation radiating and reflecting bodies (sources), including so-called black bodies.

Colorimeter

A unitary hand-held bar code scanner and reader produces an elliptical beam, oriented with its major axis along the direction of the bars, utilizing optics employing far field diffraction effects to shape the beam and maintain its elliptical aspect (length to width ratio) constant over a distance in front of the scanner were bar codes may be located. The optics eliminates parallax even though the photodetector and light source (preferably a laser diode) are located offset from each other on a board on which the optics are mounted. A housing assembly has channels which mount the board therein without shock absorbing devices. A digital microcomputer controller and peripheral devices regulate the optical power output from the laser diode and prevents catastrophic failure, if the electrical current through the laser diode exceeds safe limits. Digital control of the gain of the electronic circuits which provide the signals from which bar code information can be decoded and for the operation and control of a motor for oscillating a deflector which scans the beam across the code are also provided utilizing the microcomputer. The microcomputer also controls interface circuits to provide compatibility with auxiliary equipment and host computers which generate commands and requires data inputs of various polarity and format.

Optical system for scanning and reading bar codes which is adapted to be

Optical system for scanning and recording bar codes which is adapted to

Optical system for scanning and reading barcodes with manually

A bar code scanner has a laser which produces a beam incident on a deflector, such as a polygon, which projects a scan beam out of the scanner so as to scan a bar code; light reflected or scattered from the code being detected so as to provide signals from which the bar code may be decoded. In order to insure that the scan beam is incident on the code, a bright oblong spot is provided by a second laser and a mirror which deflects the beam from the second laser along a path, generally paralleling the scan beam, through a cylindrical lens, and intersecting the scan beam approximately in the center of the scan on the code. The laser producing the aiming spot and the deflector drive circuits are initiated upon actuation of a trigger. The laser which produces the scan beam (the scan laser) is inhibited by circuits responsive to the movement of the deflector so that the scan laser is not turned on until the deflector is able to scan the beam from the scan laser thereby insuring that the total laser power which may illuminate a small area is within radiation, health and safety limits.

Hand held bar code scanner with improved aiming means

To increase the efficiency of personnel conducting inventory management operations, including data entry of products and information as to their absence, presence or location, the operator is provided with a glove having finger sheaths and a portion for the posterior or dorsal surface of the hand which covers that surface. A bar code reader is located in a housing on the cover and flexural strain gauge elements are located in the sheaths in the vicinity of the joints of the fingers. Signals from these elements are digitized and provide for manual data entry and also for commands to operate the bar code reader. The glove and the sensors constitute a portable transaction or data entry terminal which does not require manual actuation of a trigger to operate the bar code scanner or a keyboard for manual entry of data concerning the products to be managed. Electronics for processing signals from the sensors, for operating a display to indicate the data entered upon selective movement of the fingers between flexion and extension and from the bar code reading operations, are all contained in a housing which also contains the bar code reader.

Portable transaction terminal for optical and key entry of data without

A headset to be worn around the head of an operator having a head-band, a microphone, a bar code reader, a display, electronics including a microprocessor and speech recognition for translating alphanumeric names and words into data which are to be stored in the memory of the microprocessor and a transceiver for exchanging data with a remotely located modem. Upon a voice activation, messages issued by the microprocessor are visually projected on a display and the reader is initiated.

Portable transaction terminal

Digitally controlled system for scanning and reading bar codes

Miniature scan modules which occupy a volume of less than about 1 cubic inch so as to facilitate installation in any apparatus which requires scanning of a light beam across a target and detection of light reflected from the target. The miniature size of the scan module enables it to be incorporated in various apparatus, such as keyboards or terminals and provide them with the ability to read various symbols, particularly bar codes. The module has at least two printed circuit boards on at least one of which a source of a light beam, such as a laser diode or light emitting diode is mounted and another board which may be fixed in the apparatus in which the module is installed. The boards are interconnected by structure including a flexure which defines a pivot axis for the light source and the board on which it is mounted. The flexure is made up of a plurality of elements which are insulated from each other and provide separate conductive paths for electrical power and signals between the boards. The board on which the light source is mounted is driven to oscillate about the pivot axis, thereby scanning the beam across the target. A photo detector may be mounted on the same board as the source and receives light reflected from the target, as through a collecting lens.

Scan modules for bar code readers and the like in which scan elements

An improved bar code scanning and reading apparatus which is adapted to be hand-held utilizes anamorphic optics for scanning and reading the code by providing a beam having an oblong cross-section in the nominal plane of the code. The oblong cross-section may be aligned with the bars of the code. The optics does not focus the beam in the longitudinal direction of the cross-section at the nominal plane of the code so that diffraction effects which would otherwise cause rotation of the cross-section of the beam to a position transverse to the bars of the code which would preclude reading of narrow bars, is avoided. The last lens of the anamorphic system may be a cylindrical lens which provides a line focus of a visible marker beam while at the same time providing the oblong cross-section of the beam which scans the code. The light from the vicinity of the code passes through the cylindrical lens and is collected by a toric reflector which projects the incoming light onto a photodetector. Power for operating the source of the scanning beam (a laser diode) is conserved by an opto-electronic system responsive to the movement of the sectors of a rotating beam deflector (a polygon reflector) so as to enable power to be applied to the laser only during the intervals when the beam is disposed within the limits of its scan path.

Apparatus for scanning and reading bar codes

A bar code scanner having a housing in which a laser diode and optics forming the beam which scans the code and a photodetector are assembled as a unitary structure upon a printed circuit board so that the entire structure can be located in the housing.

Optical device for detecting coded symbols

In order to meet the requirements for laser radiation safety, namely laser output which can enter the naked human eye indefinitely and cause no discernible damage (Class I emission limit) in a code symbol (bar code) scanner, a mode controller is used for generating a laser enabling the signal so as to turn the laser on in a search mode until the symbols are acquired and in an in-code mode while the symbols are being scanned. When the laser is turned on it operates at a power output which would exceed the Class I emission limits if operated continuously. Circuitry is provided for operating the mode controller so that the laser is not enabled to turn on for a period long enough to exceed Class I limits. Such circuitry may be an integrator or accumulator which responds to the time that the mode controller turns the laser on and which provides an output for inhibiting the mode controller from turning the laser on for a period of time sufficient to prevent the Class I emission limit from being exceeded. The circuitry may alternatively be a pulse generator which permits the mode controller to turn the laser on repetetively during a 'find paper' mode with a duty cycle such that the Class I emission limits are not exceeded.

Bar code scanner laser radiation exposure limit control system

An optical device for detecting bar codes (markings or patterns which symbolize data such as the name and vendor of a product) are detected by an optical device which serves as a bar code scanner. A laser diode and associated optics provides an invisible beam. A visible marker beam coincident with the laser beam is generated by a lamp and associated optics and directed coaxial with the laser beam so as to enable the laser beam to be scanned across the bar code by moving a housing in which the laser and the lamp and their associated optics are disposed. Also contained in the housing is a photodetector on which scattered light from the code is incident after passing through a collection lens located at an outlet port for the beams. An aperture is positioned between the collection lens and the detector. The location and size of the aperture and the focal length of the lens are related such that the illumination by the reflected light of the detector is substantially constant and the output signal from the detector which represents the bar code is also constant amplitude over a wide depth of focus in front of the beam port. Unwanted reflections (gloss over the bar code) are rejected by selecting the polarization of the reflections opposite to the polarization of the laser beam, as by the use of a polarizing beam splitter. A spectral beam splitter is used near the detector to select the scattered laser light for the photodetector which generates electrical signals corresponding to the bar code.

A system for optically scanning objects, particularly bar codes over a large depth of field, uses a incandescent light source to illuminate the bar code and scans the field using a rotating polygon having mirrors with different curvature on different facets thereof which provides scanning in different focal planes in the field while temporally multiplexing these planes. The optical, electronic and mechanical components are modularly packaged on a printed circuit board adapted to be contained in a housing which may be held near and pointed at the code when it is desired to read the code.

Growing community of inventors

Fishers, NY, United States of America

John A Boles