Automatic hand-supportable omnidirectional laser projection scanner with scan-head directed projection axis for intuitive hand-supported omnidirectional scanning of bar code symbols within a narrowly confined scanning volume extending thereabout

A hand-supportable projection laser scanner comprising:

• (a) a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission window through which laser light can exit said hand-supportable housing, travel towards an object bearing a code symbol and reflect therefrom, and at least a portion of said reflected laser light travel back through said light transmission window and enter said hand-supportable housing;
• (b) an optical bench mounted in said hand-supportable housing and having a longitudinal extent which extends along a central reference axis;
• (c) a laser beam producing means disposed within said hand-supportable housing for producing a laser beam;
• (d) a laser beam sweeping means mounted within said hand-supportable housing with respect to said optical bench for rotation about a rotational axis intersecting said central reference axis, where the intersection of said rotational axis and said central reference axis defines a central reference plane which extends along the longitudinal extent of said optical bench,
• said laser beam sweeping means having at least first, second and third rotating light reflective surfaces each being disposed at a different acute angle with respect to said rotational axis, for sequentially sweeping the laser beam about said rotational axis along a plurality of different paths;
• (e) a stationary array of at least first, second, third and fourth stationary light reflective surfaces mounted within said hand-supportable housing with respect to said optical bench and disposed substantially under said light transmission window;
• said first and second stationary light reflective surfaces being symmetrically disposed on opposite sides of said central reference plane, and closely adjacent said laser beam sweeping means, and
• said third and fourth stationary light reflective surfaces being symmetrically disposed on opposite sides of said central reference plane, and closely adjacent said first and second stationary light reflective surfaces, respectively;
• (f) a light collection subsystem disposed within said hand-supportable housing, and including
• (1) a light collection element, mounted along said central reference plane and adjacent said third and fourth stationary light reflective surfaces, for allowing the laser beam produced from said laser beam producing means to pass along a portion of said central reference plane, to said laser beam sweeping means, for sweeping about said rotational axis thereof along said plurality of different paths, and
• (2) light receiving means for receiving light from said light collection element at a point substantially within said central reference plane, and detecting the intensity of said received light and producing an electrical signal indicative of said detected intensity;
• (g) signal processing means disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for processing said electrical signal and producing scan data representative of a scanned code symbol;
• (h) control means within said hand-supportable housing for controlling the operation of said hand-supportable projection laser scanner so that, during scanner operation, the laser beam produced from said laser beam producing means passes along a portion of said central reference plane, to the first, second and third rotating light reflective surfaces of said laser beam sweeping means, and as the laser beam sequentially reflects off said first, second and third rotating light reflective surfaces, the laser beam is repeatedly swept across said first, second, third, and fourth stationary light reflective surfaces thereby producing first, second, third, and fourth groups of plural scan lines, respectively, which are projected out through said light transmission window and intersect about a projection axis within a narrowly confined scanning volume extending from adjacent said light transmission window to at least about six inches therefrom so as to produce a highly collimated scanning pattern within said narrowly confined scanning volume;
• and
• (i) said hand-supportable housing being supportable relative to an object bearing a code symbol so that
• when a code symbol is presented within said narrowly confined scanning volume,
• (i) the code symbol is scanned omnidirectionally by said highly collimated scanning pattern,
• (ii) at least a portion of the laser light reflected from said scanned code symbol is directed through said light transmission window, reflected off at least one of said first, second, third and fourth stationary light reflective surfaces, and then reflected off at least one of said first, second and third rotating light reflective surfaces of said laser beam sweeping means, and
• (iii) thereafter said reflected laser light is collected by said light collection element, and received by said light receiving means for detection, whereupon said electrical signal is produced for processing by said signal processing means;
• wherein said hand-supportable housing has a head portion with surface geometry that visually indicates the direction of said projection axis, for intuitive hand-supported omnidirectional scanning of bar code symbols within said narrowly confined scanning volume extending about said projection axis.