Incremental encoder and serializer
AssigneeSeagate Technology LLC
InventorsMichael William Pfeiffer, Eric Douglas Johnson, Richard Gordon Goodrich
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and associated method directed to encoding data from an object in order to simultaneously identify a serialization value of the object from the data while incrementally tracking the object's position from the data.
Claims20
A method of individually serializing each of a plurality of objects, the method comprising:
- storing first and second reference indicia at a first spatial separation therebetween to a first media on a first object of the plurality of objects;
- storing the first and the second reference indicia at a different second spatial separation therebetween to a second media on a second object of the plurality of objects;
- moving at least one of an incremental encoder and a selected one of either the first and second objects with respect to each other;
- and
- during the moving step, retrieving data with the incremental encoder from the selected object's stored indicia identifying a serialization value indicating which object of the plurality of objects is the selected object in the moving step.
An incremental encoder apparatus comprising a decoder circuit that executes programming instructions stored in memory to retrieve stored data from a media, to determine from the stored data a spatial separation between first and second reference indicia, and to derive a serialization value identifying a selected object from a group of objects in relation to the determination of the spatial separation.
A method of individually serializing each of a plurality of objects, the method comprising:
- storing first indicia to a first media on a first object of the plurality of objects;
- storing second indicia that are characteristically different than the first indicia to a second media on a second object of the plurality of objects;
- moving at least one of an incremental encoder and a selected one of either the first and second objects with respect to each other;
- during the moving step retrieving data with the incremental encoder from the selected object's stored indicia identifying a serialization value indicating which object of the plurality of objects is the selected object in the moving step;
- and
- during the retrieving data step incrementally positioning the plurality of objects as they are individually transported to a processor controlled station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.