Optical reading apparatus
AssigneeTokyo Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorYasuhisa Yamashita
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An optical reading apparatus for optically reading information of a symbol on an article is comprised of a bar code reading circuit for emitting laser beams to a bar code printed on a commodity passing in front of the bar code reading circuit and for reading the information of the bar code from the laser beams reflected at the bar code. In the optical reading apparatus the bar code reading circuit includes a plurality of bar code readers which are put toward a path through which the commodity is moved so that read areas formed by the bar code readers contain the article moving path at different angles. A priority decision circuit is provided for applying a selective operation to the data read by the bar code readers.
Claims17
An optical reading apparatus for use with an article to which a light reflective symbol is affixed, comprising:
- a plurality of symbol reading means, facing a path through which said article is moved, for reading said symbol by emitting light to scan the article and detecting light reflected from the symbol affixed to said article to respectively generate symbol signals corresponding to data represented by said symbol, wherein all of said plurality of symbol reading means respectively scan primarily different parts of said article when said article is located at a predetermined position along said path;
- and
- circuit means responsive to signals related to said symbol signals for selecting only one symbol reading means from among a group of said plurality of symbol reading means which have succeeded in reading said symbol to output the symbol signal generated by said one selected symbol reading means.
An optical reading apparatus for use with an article to which a light reflective symbol is affixed, comprising:
- a plurality of symbol reading means, facing a path through which said article is moved, for reading said symbol by emitting light to scan the article and detecting light reflected from the symbol affixed to said article to respectively generate symbol signals corresponding to data represented by said symbol, wherein said plurality of symbol reading means respectively scan primarily different parts of said article;
- and
- circuit means responsive to signals related to said symbol signals for selecting only one symbol reading means from among said plurality of symbol reading means to output the symbol signal generated by said one selected symbol reading means;
- wherein said selecting means includes determining means for detecting said one symbol reading means which has succeeded in reading the symbol earlier than any other of said plurality of symbol reading means, and for determining the data represented by said symbol as read by said one symbol reading means to be valid.
An optical reading apparatus for use with an article to which a light reflective symbol is affixed, comprising:
- a plurality of symbol reading means, facing a path through which said article is moved, for reading said symbol by emitting light to scan the article and detecting light reflected from the symbol affixed to said article to respectively generate symbol signals corresponding to data represented by said symbol, wherein said plurality of symbol reading means respectively scan primarily different parts of said article;
- means for verifying whether each of said plurality of symbol reading means has succeeded in reading said symbol;
- and
- circuit means responsive to signals related to said symbol signals for comparing with each other the symbol signals supplied from a group of symbol reading means which have succeeded in reading said symbol, and for determining data corresponding to one of said symbol signals to be valid if it coincides with at least one other of said symbol signals.
An optical reading apparatus for use with an article to which a light reflective symbol is affixed, comprising:
- a plurality of symbol reading means, facing a path through which said article is moved, for reading said symbol by emitting light to scan the article and detecting light reflected from the symbol affixed to said article to respectively generate symbol signals corresponding to data represented by said symbol, wherein all of said plurality of symbol reading means respectively scan primarily different parts of said article substantially simultaneously;
- and
- circuit means responsive to signal related to said symbol signals for selecting only one symbol reading means from among a group of said plurality of symbol reading means which have succeeded in reading said symbol to output the symbol signal generated by said one selected symbol reading means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.