Hand-held scanner

A hand-held scanner for reading characters from a string of characters on a substrate comprising:

• a housing adapted to be held and moved by a hand;
• optical means, located within said housing, for viewing an image of an area on the substrate;
• an image splitter for receiving the image of the area from said optical means and producing two images of the area wherein one of the two images of the area is rotated with respect to the other of the two images of the area;
• optical detector means, located within said housing for detecting the relative intensity of light at a plurality of points in each of the two images and generating an electrical signal representative of the relative intensity of light in the plurality of points in each of the two images.

A mouse/scanner for reading characters from a string of characters recorded on a substrate comprising:

• a housing;
• a ball rotatably mounted in said housing for rotational movement when said housing is moved over the surface of the substrate;
• a first movement sensor, responsive to rotation of said ball about a first axis, for generating a first movement signal;
• a second movement sensor, responsive to rotation of said ball about a second axis, for generating a second movement signal;
• first optical means, located within said housing, for viewing an area of view outside of the projection of the housing's bottom face on the substrate, so that the user may view a field of view that includes the area of view;
• optical detector means, located within said housing, for detecting the relative intensity of light reflected from each of a plurality of points in the area of view;
• and
• communication means, located in said housing, for sending any of the signals generated from said first movement sensor means, said second movement sensor means and said optical detector means to a host computing means.

A hand-held scanner for reading characters from a string of characters recorded on a substrate, comprising:

• a housing, being adapted such that the scanner may be conveniently moved over the substrate surface, along the string of characters, the housing having a bottom face adjacent the substrate, the bottom face forming a projection on the substrate;
• first optical means, located within the housing, for viewing a first area of view;
• optical detector means, located within the housing, for detecting the relative intensity of light reflected from each of a plurality of points in the first area of view;
• wherein the housing is further adapted such that the first area of view is outside of the projection of the housing's bottom face on the substrate, so that the user may view a field of view which includes the first area of view, and such that the field of view is entirely unobstructed by the housing in at least one direction along the string of characters from the first area of view, so as to facilitate tracking.

A hand-held scanner for reading characters arranged in a plurality of lines recorded on a substrate, the scanner comprising:

• a housing having an elongate shape with a scanning end and a rear end;
• first optical means for viewing a first area of view on the substrate adjacent the scanning end of said housing when said housing is oriented with respect to the substrate such that the scanning end of said housing is adjacent the substrate and the rear end of said housing is lifted off away from the substrate;
• second optical means for viewing a second area of view on the substrate adjacent a side of said housing when said housing is oriented with respect to the substrate such that the side of said housing is adjacent the substrate, wherein a longest dimension of the second area of view is at least several times longer than a longest dimension of the first area of view;
• and
• optical detector means, located within said housing, for detecting relative intensity of light reflected from each of a plurality of points in one of the first and second areas of view.

A mouse-scanner for reading characters from a string of characters recorded on a substrate comprising:

• a housing;
• a ball rotatably mounted in said housing for rotational movement when said housing is moved over the surface of the substrate;
• a first movement sensor, responsive to rotation of said ball about a first axis, for generating a first movement signal;
• a second movement sensor, responsive to rotation of said ball about a second axis, for generating a second movement signal;
• first optical means, located within said housing, for viewing an area of view;
• optical detector means, located within said housing, for detecting the relative intensity of light reflected from each of a plurality of points in the area of view;
• a microphone mounted on said housing;
• and
• wireless communication means for communicating with a host computing means so as to be able to provide the host computing means with any of signals generated through said optical detector means and signals generated through said microphone.