System and method for detecting barcode printing errors
AssigneeHand Held Products, Inc.
InventorH. Sprague Ackley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Barcode verifiers automate the verification process by capturing an image of the printed barcode and analyzing the image according to an industry specification. Industry specifications (e.g., ISO/IEC 15416,15415) identify common printing errors and prescribe test methods for detecting and quantifying these errors. Typically, these tests sample a barcode along one or more scan lines. Print errors that are parallel to these scan lines may be missed by the test. The present invention embraces a system and method to detect unprinted lines in barcodes resulting from a printer malfunction and produce a printer malfunction report with information regarding the quantity, position, and magnitude of these print errors.
Claims20
A barcode verifier, comprising:
- an imaging module for capturing images of a field of view;
- a memory communicatively coupled to the imaging module and configured to store images and a barcode quality verification program;
- and
- a processor communicatively coupled to the memory configured by the barcode quality verification program to execute the ordered steps of:
- (i) retrieving a stored image from the memory, (ii) locating a barcode symbol in the stored image, (iii) identifying an unprinted line or lines in the barcode symbol, (iv) determining a printer malfunction using the unprinted line or lines, and (v) creating a printer malfunction report.
A method for generating a printer malfunction report from a barcode image, the method comprising:
- capturing an image of a barcode using an optical device, the barcode comprising a plurality of barcode bars;
- locating the barcode within the image of the barcode;
- creating a box to surround the located barcode, wherein the box comprises:
- (i) a top edge perpendicular to the barcode bars and aligned with the top of the barcode bars and (ii) a bottom edge perpendicular to the barcode bars and aligned with the bottom of the barcode bars;
- detecting unprinted gaps along each barcode bar, the gaps indicative of a printer malfunction;
- if possible, connecting the unprinted gaps to form lines that are substantially parallel to the top or bottom edge of the box, each line having a thickness to fill the corresponding unprinted gaps;
- counting the number of lines formed;
- measuring the thickness of each line;
- locating each line with respect to a box edge;
- and
- if at least one line is formed, then generating a printer malfunction report comprising the number of lines formed, the thickness of each line, and the location of each line with respect to a box edge.
A barcode scanner for decoding barcodes and verifying barcodes, the barcode scanner comprising:
- an imaging module for capturing an image of a label, the label comprising a user-data barcode symbol encoded with user data and a printer-ID barcode symbol encoded with a printer identity;
- a memory communicatively coupled to the imaging module and configured to store the image and a barcode quality verification program;
- and
- a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured by the barcode quality verification program to execute the ordered steps of:
- (i) retrieving the image from the memory, (ii) locating the user-data barcode symbol in the retrieved image, (iii) identifying unprinted dots in the user-data barcode symbol, (iv) determining a printer malfunction using the unprinted dots, (v) locating the printer-ID barcode symbol in the image, (vi) decoding the printer-ID barcode symbol, and (vii) creating a printer malfunction report comprising the printer malfunction and the printer identity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.