Portable hand-supportable data terminal with automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reader integrated therein

A portable hand-supportable data terminal for allowing an operator to enter, collect, and display data, said portable hand-supportable data terminal comprising:

• (1) a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture and being supportable within a hand of an operator;
• (2) an automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, and programmed for reading bar code symbols encoded with information, and producing symbol character data representative of said information;
• (3) a manually-actuated data entry device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for manually producing character data representative of information manually entered into said portable hand-supportable data terminal;
• (4) a data storage device, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for storing data collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal;
• said automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem including
• (2)(a) a bar code symbol reading mechanism automatically and repeatedly reading a bar code symbol on an object within a predetermined time period, and each instant said bar code symbol is read within said predetermined time period, automatically producing a symbol character data string representative of said read bar code symbol,
• (2)(b) a data transmission circuit, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for transmitting, when activated, a selected one of said produced symbol character data strings to either said data storage device or a host system arranged in operable communication with said portable hand-supportable data terminal,
• (2)(c) a manually-activatable data transmission switch, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for generating a data transmission control activation signal in response to the activation of said manually-activatable data transmission switch within said predetermined time period, and
• (2)(d) a system controller for controlling said data transmission circuit so that the symbol character data string, produced at substantially the same time when said data transmission control activation signal is generated, is transmitted to either said data storage device or said host system;
• a visual information display device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for visually displaying information collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal;
• and
• a computing platform, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for executing a graphical user interface (GUI) based operating system (OS) program, and providing a graphical user interface for said operator on said visual information display device.