Methods and apparatus for a scanner having a top plate assembly with weight measurement capabilities
AssigneeNCR Corporation
InventorPete Roquemore
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and techniques for a scanner having a top plate with an integrated scale. A scanner base mates with a scanner top plate assembly, with the top plate assembly including an integrated scale. The top plate assembly includes a scan window and a scale mechanism. The top plate rests on or is secured to suitable resting points in the scanner base. The top plate suitably receives power, and communicates measurement data to the scanner base, without the use of cables or other connectors whose weight may interfere with accurate reading of weight. A scanner base may be designed so as to accommodate any of a variety of alternative scanner top plate types without reconfiguration, or with a relatively simple reconfiguration of the scanner base.
Claims20
A top plate assembly for a bar code scanner, comprising:
- a generally planar top plate;
- a scale mechanism disposed within the top plate assembly;
- a plurality of rest points for mating the top plate assembly to a scanner base;
- and
- an interface for communicating a weight reading from the scale mechanism to a scanner base mated with the top plate assembly.
A scanner base, comprising:
- a housing;
- a plurality of support points for mating the scanner base to a top plate assembly;
- and
- an interface for receiving a weight reading from a scale mechanism in the top plate assembly.
A method of transaction processing, comprising the steps of:
- coupling a scanner base to a scanner top plate assembly having an integrated scale mechanism;
- and
- initializing the scanner base and the top plate assembly to establish communication of weight readings from the scanner top plate assembly to the scanner base.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.