Tunnel-type digital imaging system for use within retail shopping environments such as supermarkets

US7581681B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• METROLOGIC INSTRUMENTS, INC. · US

Inventors

• Constantine J. Tsikos · Voorhees, US
• C. Harry Knowles · Moorestown, US
• Xiaoxun Zhu · Marlton, US
• Michael Schnee · Chester, US
• Ka Man Au · Philadelphia, US
• Allan Wirth · Bedford, US
• Timothy Good · Blackwood, US
• Andrew Jankevics · Westford, US
• Sankar Ghosh · Philadelphia, US
• Charles A. Naylor · Sewell, US
• Thomas Amundsen · Turnersville, US
• Robert Blake · Woodbury Heights, US
• William Svedas · Deptford, US
• Shawn Defoney · Runnemede, US
• Edward Skypala · Blackwood, US
• Pirooz Vatan · Lexington, US
• Russell Joseph Dobbs · Cherry Hill, US
• George Kolis · Pennsauken, US
• Mark Schmidt · Williamstown, US
• Jeffery Yorsz · Winchester, US
• Patrick Giordano · Glassboro, US
• Stephen J. Colavito · Westtown, US
• David Wilz · Sewell, US
• Barry E. Schwartz · Haddonfield, US
• Steven Y. Kim · Cambridge, US
• Dale Fisher · Willow View Lane, US
• Jon Van Tassell · Winthrop, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 30, 2007
• Grant date: Sep 1, 2009
• Expiry date: Oct 30, 2027

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06K7/10732
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A tunnel-type digital imaging system for use within retail shopping environments such as supermarkets. The system includes a tunnel configuration arranged about a conveyor structure for transporting objects therethrough, and an image capturing and processing subsystem embodied within the tunnel configuration, for generating a 3D digital imaging volume above the conveyor structure and within the tunnel configuration, for capturing digital 1D images of objects transported through the 3D imaging volume. The image capturing and processing subsystem includes a plurality of coplanar illumination and imaging stations. Each station includes a linear imaging array having optics providing a field of view (FOV) on the linear imaging array that is projected and extends into the 3D imaging volume, and one or more light emitting devices configured together to produce a substantially planar illumination beam (PLIB) that extends in substantially along the same plane as the FOV of the linear imaging array so that each the linear imaging array and corresponding one or more light emitting devices produce at least one coplanar illumination and imaging plane that projects into the 3D imaging volume. A …