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:
Apr. 01, 1997
Filed:
Aug. 04, 1995
Kazuo Hasegawa, Miyagi-ken, JP;
Junichi Ouchi, Miyagi-ken, JP;
Alps Electric Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An optical reading apparatus including an LED array for projecting light onto bar codes formed on a paper surface, a line sensor for receiving reflected light from the bar codes, a bar code reading unit for processing bar code reading signals obtained by the line sensor and for obtaining decoded signals of the bar codes, and a drive control unit for driving the LED array and the line sensor, wherein the LED array is divided into a plurality of sets, and a paper detecting unit detects whether a paper surface is present or not based on a bar code reading signal and supplies a paper surface detection signal to a drive control unit when the paper surface is detected, and the drive control unit drives the plurality of LED sets to emit light in sequence when a paper surface is not detected, and to emit light simultaneously when a paper surface detection signal is generated by the paper detecting unit.