Instant portable bar code reader

A portable instant reader comprising:

• a hand-held unit having illumination and light receiving window means;
• a flash illuminating device positioned behind said window means;
• said flash illuminating device and window means being configured to distribute light across a surface containing information being read by said reader, said window means being configured to receive light reflected from the surface;
• a photodetector disposed within the reader;
• lens means for casting an image of light received through said window means onto said photodetector;
• said flash illuminating device comprising elliptical-effect reflector means having a light source at a near focal point thereof, and having a second focal point disposed in front of said window means, such that the elliptical axis for said elliptical-effect reflector means extends obliquely relative to said window means.

An electroptical pattern recognition reader comprising:

• a flashable illuminator;
• means for triggering the flashable illuminator;
• means for positioning the flashable illuminator in such relation to a pattern so as to illuminate the same and develope a reflected light signal therefrom upon the triggering of said flashable illuminator;
• an optoelectronic spatial sensor means;
• lens means for producing an image of said pattern from said reflected light signal and focusing the same onto said optoelectronic spatial sensor means;
• said lens means providing a resolution of at least about forty line pairs per millimeter for patterns at any depth over a distance of about ten millimeters along the optical axis of the lens means and external to the reader.

In a portable bar code reader

• a hand-held bar code reader unit having an elongated relatively narrow hand grip portion for grasping in the hand of a user and having an enlarged reader head portion of greater width than said hand grip portion,
• said elongated hand grip portion having a length and cross sectional configuration so as to be grasped by the hand with all fingers in gripping relation thereto,
• said reader head portion having extended window means with a width dimension greater than the width of said hand grip portion which is to be gripped by the fingers of a hand,
• extended light source means in said reader head portion for producing a sheet of light energy directed outwardly from the reader head portion through said window means over substantially the entire width of said window means so as to flood a bar code sensing region in front of said window means having a width dimension approximately equal to the width of said window means, having a depth dimension equal to at least about ten millimeters and a height dimension equal to at least about one millimeter, such that a bar code pattern in the sensing region will reflect light from said extended light source means along an optical axis directed generally normal to said window means, and
• lens means for focusing bar code patterns in said sensing region onto an image plane in said reader unit with a resolution of about forty line pairs per millimeter.

The method of reading bar code patterns which comprises:

• (a) receiving a light image from a sensing region having a width dimension greater than the length of the total bar code pattern and of a substantial height dimension greater than one millimeter,
• (b) converging the rays of said light image to pass through a narrow non-circular aperture,
• (c) focusing the light image onto a light receiving region of a photodetector having a resolution sufficient to sense a predetermined bar code, and
• (d) reading out the individual elements of the light image focused on the photodetector for processing into bar code data.