The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 10, 1995
Filed:
Mar. 18, 1994
Walter E Pelton, Charlotte, NC (US);
Hand Held Products, Charlotte, NC (US);
Abstract
Energy is conserved in a bar code reader by taking bar code samples on demand or as necessary, primarily when a data bearing feature of the bar code is predicted to be proximate. A plurality of samples are obtained for a bar code. Preferably, an analog to digital converter converts each of the samples into a multi-bit digital value. A feature detector is connected to the analog to digital converter for detecting bar code features from the plurality of multi-bit digital values. The displacements among the detected data bearing features are compared to thereby determine the width of bars having first and second data values in order to decode the bar code. Preferably, a relative scan speed is extracted and kept current during the scan in order to predict code feature locations. Preferably the decoding proceeds concurrently with the sampling. A controller regulates the execution of sampling based upon the predicted feature locations, and preferably reduces or eliminates sampling when no required feature is predicted.