Combination hand-held and counter-top omni-directional scanner

Abstract

A bar code scanner for either fixed or hand-held disposition at a counter. The scanner includes a compact housing including a spherical head with a window and a downwardly protruding stem, and a sliding carriage attached to the base of the stem. The stem and sliding carriage cooperate with arcuate guide rails in the compact base for positioning the window via pivoting the head about a horizontal axis. An omni-directional scanning assembly is mounted in the head and this includes an object detection circuit for detecting and determining the presence of an object within an operative scanning field, a light source for generating a laser beam when an object is within the scanning field, a scanning mechanism for scanning the light beam across the object and its bar code, a photoreceiving circuit for receiving light reflected from the bar code, an A/D converter for generating a digital signal representing the light reflected from the bar code, and processing and control circuitry for decoding the bar coded-information and controlling overall system flow.