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:
Feb. 03, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 05, 2001
Alex Roustaei, La Jolla, CA (US);
Wenji Xia, Nepean, CA;
Dennis G. Priddy, Clearwater Beach, FL (US);
Symagery Microsystems, Inc., , CA;
Abstract
An improved optical code reading system and method that enhances the ability of a reader to locate a symbol within a field of view and enhances the error-correcting properties of the encoding scheme commonly used in 2D bar codes. The reader offsets the effects of damaged finder patterns and missing symbol perimeters and, thereafter, detects high-level symbol information such as the code type, symbol size, and the number of rows and columns in the symbol. The reader then identifies those missing portions of a damaged symbol and marks each missing data bit location with a predetermined indicator. A decoding algorithm then interprets the missing bit indicator as an error of known location (e.g., an “erasure”), thereby nearly doubling the error correcting strength of all bar codes employing the Reed-Solomon error correction scheme.