Method of reading bar code symbols on objects at a point-of-sale station by passing said objects through a complex of stationary coplanar illumination and imaging planes projected into a 3D imaging volume

US8042740B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• METROLOGIC INSTRUMENTS, INC. · US

Inventors

• C. Harry Knowles · Moorestown, US
• Xiaoxun Zhu · Marlton, US
• Timothy Good · Blackwood, US
• Tao Xian · Readington, US
• Anatoly Kotlarsky · Holland, US
• Michael Veksland · Marlton, US
• Mark Hernandez · Bridgeton, US
• John Gardner · Mullica Hill, US
• Steven Essinger · Philadelphia, US
• Patrick Giordano · Glassboro, US
• Sean Philip Kearney · Marlton, US
• Mark Schmidt · Williamstown, US
• John A. Furlong · Woodbury, US
• Nicholas Ciarlante · Teaneck, US
• Yong Liu · Sunnyvale, US
• Jie Ren · Lo Wu, CN
• Xi Tao · Suzhou, CN
• JiBin Liu · Beijing, CN
• Ming Zhuo · Suzhou, CN
• Duane Ellis · Medford, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 19, 2007
• Grant date: Oct 25, 2011
• Expiry date: Nov 9, 2029

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06K2207/1012
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Digital image capture and processing systems and methods for generating and projecting coplanar illumination and imaging planes and/or coextensive area-type illumination and imaging zones, through one or more imaging windows, and into a 3D imaging volume in a retail POS environments, while employing automatic object motion and/or velocity detection, real-time image analysis and other techniques to capture and processing high-quality digital images of objects passing through the 3D imaging volume, and intelligently controlling and/or managing the use of visible and invisible forms of illumination, during object illumination and imaging operations, that might otherwise annoy or disturb human operators and/or customers working and/or shopping in such retail environments.