Methods and apparatus for scanning swiped barcodes

An imaging scanner comprising:

• a housing;
• an image sensor positioned within the housing and configured to capture images of an environment appearing within a field of view (FOV) of the imaging scanner;
• one or more focus components positioned in the housing and controllable for focusing the imaging scanner at focus distances;
• a barcode decoder;
• and
• a controller configured to:
• detect an object;
• in response to detecting the object, initiate a swipe decode phase, the swipe decode phase including:
• control the one or more focus components to focus the imaging scanner at a pre-determined swipe focus distance representing a pre-determined expected swipe distance range from the imaging scanner to a scan target within which the scan target is expected to be swiped at least partially across the FOV,
• control the image sensor to start capturing first images of the environment appearing within the FOV, and
• control the barcode decoder to attempt to decode a barcode from first image data associated with the first images of the environment appearing within the FOV;
• in response to at least one barcode being decoded from the first image data, exit the swipe decode phase;
• in response to no barcode being decoded from the first image data during a time period representing an expected amount of time during which a scan target is expected to be swiped across the FOV, exit the swipe decode phase and initiate a re-presentation decode phase, the re-presentation decode phase including:
• control the one or more focus components to sequentially focus the imaging scanner at a plurality of pre-determined, re-presentation focus distances across a working distance of the imaging scanner,
• control the image sensor to capture one or more second images of the FOV at each of the plurality of pre-determined, re-presentation focus distances, and
• control the barcode decoder to attempt to decode a barcode from second image data associated with the one or more second images of the environment appearing within the FOV;
• and
• in response to at least one barcode being decoded from the second image data, exit the re-presentation decode phase.

A non-transitory, computer-readable, storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause an imaging scanner to:

• detect an object;
• in response to detecting the object, initiating a swipe decode phase, the swipe decode phase including:
• control one or more focus components to focus the imaging scanner at a pre-determined swipe focus distance representing a pre-determined expected swipe distance range from the imaging scanner to a scan target within which the scan target is expected to be swiped at least partially across a field of view (FOV),
• capture first images of an environment appearing within the FOV, and
• attempt to decode a barcode within first image data associated with the first images of the environment appearing within the FOV;
• and
• in response to at least one barcode being decoded from the first image data, exit the swipe decode phase;
• in response to no barcode being decoded from the first image data during a time period representing an expected amount of time during which a scan target is expected to be swiped across the FOV, exit the swipe decode phase and initiate a re-presentation decode phase, the re-presentation decode phase including:
• control the one or more focus components to sequentially focus the imaging scanner at a plurality of pre-determined, re-presentation focus distances across a working distance of the imaging scanner,
• capture one or more second images of the environment appearing within the FOV at each of the plurality of pre-determined focus distances, and
• attempt to decode a barcode from second image data associated with the one or more second images of the environment appearing within the FOV;
• and
• in response to at least one barcode being decoded from the second image data, exit the re-presentation decode phase.