Apparatus for and method of reading targets arbitrarily oriented in imaging workstations

A point-of-transaction workstation for electro-optically reading targets arbitrarily oriented in the workstation during reading, comprising:

• a housing;
• a window supported by the housing;
• a solid-state imager supported by the housing, and operative for capturing return light from the targets over a main field of view, the imager having an array of sensors arranged along mutually perpendicular array axes;
• an optical system supported by the housing and operative for splitting the main field of view into a plurality of subfields of view that extend through the window to an arbitrarily oriented target in the workstation, and for optically configuring one of the subfields with an optimal resolution along one of the array axes to enable the imager to capture return light from the arbitrarily oriented target, and for optically configuring another of the subfields with an optimal resolution along the other of the array axes to enable the imager to capture return light from the arbitrarily oriented target;
• and
• a controller for controlling the imager and for processing the captured return light in both the one and the other subfields to enable the reading of the arbitrarily oriented target in the workstation independently of target orientation relative to the array axes.

A method of electro-optically reading targets arbitrarily oriented in a workstation during reading, comprising:

• supporting a window on a housing;
• capturing return light from the targets over a main field of view of a solid-state imager having an array of sensors arranged along mutually perpendicular array axes;
• splitting the main field of view into a plurality of subfields of view that extend through the window to an arbitrarily oriented target in the workstation;
• optically configuring one of the subfields to enable the imager to capture return light from the arbitrarily oriented target with resolution optimized along one of the array axes;
• optically configuring another of the subfields to enable the imager to capture return light from the arbitrarily oriented target with resolution optimized along the other of the array axes;
• and
• controlling the imager and processing the captured return light in both the one and the other subfields to enable the reading of the arbitrarily oriented target independently of target orientation in the workstation relative to the array axes.