Ergonomic portable data acquisition terminal

A portable data terminal comprising:

• a main housing having a center axis;
• a landscape-oriented display screen disposed on a top front portion of the main housing and extending a width of the main housing;
• a keyboard disposed on top of the main housing and below the display screen;
• a scan engine disposed in a front face of the main housing and including an imager and internal electronics configured to project a read volume outwardly along the center axis of the main housing and decode optical codes located within the read volume;
• a first camera and a second camera disposed in the front face of the main housing on opposing sides of the scan engine, and configured to operate separately from the scan engine;
• left and right battery housings disposed on an underside of the main housing to form respective left and right ergonomic handle grips arranged angularly inward from a rear of the main housing to a front of the main housing to accommodate two-handed grasping of the portable data terminal, wherein the keyboard is constructed and arranged to receive input from a pair of thumbs while corresponding hands are grasping and supporting the main housing;
• and
• an enlarged downwardly facing inductive receiving coil charging element disposed in the underside of the main housing between the left and right battery housings, the inductive receiving coil element operable to receive a charge from an inductive charging coil when placed in proximity thereto and supply the charge to a power supply disposed in the left and right battery housings.

A portable data terminal comprising:

• a main housing having an extended front face;
• a landscape-oriented display screen disposed on a top forward portion of the main housing and extending nearly to lateral edges of the main housing;
• a keyboard disposed on top of the main housing and rearward of the display screen;
• and
• left and right battery housings serving as ergonomic handle grips disposed on an underside of the main housing to accommodate two-handed grasping of the portable data terminal, wherein the keyboard is constructed and arranged to receive input from a pair of thumbs while corresponding hands are grasping and supporting the portable data terminal;
• and
• an electronics package disposed within the extended front face of the main housing, the electronics package including:
• a scan engine configured to read optical codes located within its field of view;
• and
• first and second cameras positioned on opposite lateral sides of the scan engine proximate respective left and right lateral edges of the extended front face, the first and second cameras being separated to extend at least 50% of a width of the display screen, and operable separately from the scan engine.