JP2767646B2 - Reader - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] A reading device capable of preventing scanning beams from a plurality of scanners from overlapping on a barcode surface, and to reduce the rate of barcode reading errors and inability to read. A light projection means for projecting a scanning beam by reflecting light emitted from a light source onto a surface of a rotating reflecting polyhedron, and a scanning beam projected from the light projection means. And a light receiving unit that receives reflected light obtained by scanning a bar code written on a moving article and converts the reflected light into an electric signal. A reading device for reading a code, wherein the rotating direction of the reflecting polyhedron of the light projecting means is rotated so that the scanning directions of the scanning beams are opposite to each other, or the reflecting polyhedron is rotated. The rotation is performed at different periods.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a bar code reading device that reads a bar code of a product with a plurality of scanners, and more particularly to a reading device that can prevent scanning beams from a plurality of scanners from overlapping on a bar code surface.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, point-of-sale (POS) systems have become widespread in department stores, supermarkets, and the like, and the efficiency of sales management and registration of sales products has been increasing.

The POS system reads a barcode printed on product packaging, labels, etc. by beam scanning with laser light and converts it into information suitable for calculation processing, and a computer for processing the information obtained by this. And an electronic register for relaying information between them and outputting information to the customer.

Recently, in order to save labor for operators, when a customer places a product on a conveyor, the conveyor conveys the product and a device that reads the product with a scanner in a tunnel has been developed and put into practical use.

In such a reading device, a plurality of scanners are arranged in a tunnel, for example, a plurality of scanners on both side surfaces, so that the bar code can be read on any surface of the product,
When products pass through the tunnel, they are scanned by beam scanning at the same time.However, due to simultaneous scanning from multiple scanners, reflected light is superimposed and disturbed, resulting in bar code reading errors and inability to read. Because the rate of occurrence is high,
There is a need for a method of preventing reading errors and readability.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 6 shows a conveyor-type bar code reader, in which a belt conveyor (hereinafter, referred to as a conveyor) 20 is laid on a conveying path 2 having a predetermined length as shown in FIG. A tunnel 3 is provided above. A product receiving section 4 is arranged at the end of the transport path 2, at the right end in the figure. The conveyor 20 is moved by a drive source not shown.

In the tunnel 3, scanners 5a and 5b are arranged on both sides. This is so that the bar code 10a can be read regardless of whether it is printed on the top surface or the side surface of the product 1a.

As shown in FIG. 7, the bar code 10a is composed of a combination of a thick line and a thin line and the size of the interval between them, and characters, numbers or symbols are displayed in a permutation of a predetermined number thereof, and the bar code 10a is directly placed on the packaging of the product 1a. It is printed or printed on a label or the like and affixed to the product 1a.

FIGS. 8A and 8B show the scanner 5a (the scanners 5a and 5a).
b has the same structure, and will be described with reference to the scanner 5a). The scanner 5a includes a data processing unit 7 common to the optical unit 6 and the scanners 5a and 5b. The optical unit 6 includes a light source 61a, for example, a laser diode.
The emitted light from the emission unit 63 including the beam shaping lens 62 is reflected by the plane mirrors 64a and 64b, emits a scanning beam by the rotating polygon mirror 65a, and is reflected by the scanning pattern forming mirrors 66a to 66f. A scanning function that scans the bar code 10a of the product 1a on the conveyor 20 from the reading window 67 with a scanning beam in a different angular direction through the reading window 67, and collects the reflected light obtained by scanning the bar code 10a of the product 1a via the polygon mirror 65a. It has a light receiving conversion function of condensing light at 68, reading the light by the light receiving sensor 69a, and converting it into an electric signal.

The polygon mirror 65a has, for example, six reflection surfaces and performs six scans in one rotation, and each surface is provided with a different angle with respect to the vertical direction, and emits a scanning beam.
The polygon mirror 65a is rotated by the motor M1,
1 and the light source 61 are connected to the reading control unit 8, and the light receiving sensor 69a
Is connected to the reading control unit 8 via the data processing unit 7. The reading control unit 8 is connected to an electronic register (not shown). The optical unit 6, the data processing unit 7, and the reading control unit 8 are housed in a housing 50.

The data processing unit 7 converts the electric signal light-received and converted by the light-receiving sensor 69a of each of the scanners 5a and 5b into a bar code through a sensor amplifier, an analog / digital (A / D) conversion circuit and a binarization circuit (not shown). Recognize as a signal.

Accordingly, the scanner 5a emits a scanning beam from the reading window 67 as shown in FIG. 8B under the control of each unit by the reading control unit 8, and the product is directed to the reading window 67.
The bar code 10a of 1a is scanned, and the bar code 10a is read by the reflected light to recognize the data.

With such a configuration and function, the barcode 10
When the product 1a on which the “a” is printed is placed on the start end of the conveyor 20a, that is, on the left end in the figure, the product 1a is conveyed and in the tunnel 3a,
Scanning beams are emitted simultaneously by the scanners 5a and 5b,
The bar code 10a at one of the side and top positions is read, the product 1a is sent to the product receiving unit 4, and the read data is sent to the data processing unit 7 for recognition. The recognized data is sent from the reading control unit 8 to an electronic register and registered as sales merchandise data.

When the barcode 10a is read by the scanners 5a and 5b, the operator is notified by a reading completion sound.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

According to the above conventional method, when a plurality of scanners in a tunnel on a conveyor are provided and a bar code of a product passing through the tunnel is read, a scanning beam is emitted from the plurality of scanners at once as shown in FIG. In addition, since the scanning speed of the scanning beam is the same, the scanning beam is superimposed on the bar code surface, and the reflected light is disturbed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a reading apparatus capable of reducing a reading error rate of a barcode and a rate of reading failure.

[Means for solving the problem]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the principle of the present invention. FIG. 1 (a) is a block diagram corresponding to claim 1, and FIG. 1 (b) is a block diagram corresponding to claim 2.

1) Means Corresponding to Claim 1 In the figure, 61 is a light source, 5 is a reading means comprising a light projecting means 60 and a light receiving means 69, and 60 is a light provided from a plurality of reading means 5 and emitted from the light source 61, respectively. Are projected on the surface of the rotating reflecting polyhedron 65 to project the scanning beam. 65 is provided in each of the plurality of reading means 5 in each of the projecting means 60, and the direction of rotation between the respective projecting means 60 is changed. A reflecting polyhedron 69 rotating so that the scanning directions of the scanning beams are opposite to each other is provided on each of the plurality of reading means 5 and is written on the moving article 1 by the scanning beam emitted from the light emitting means 60. It is a light receiving unit that receives reflected light obtained by scanning the barcode 10 and converts the reflected light into an electric signal.

Therefore, the bar code 10 is read by rotating the rotating directions of the plurality of reflecting polyhedrons 65 so that the scanning directions of the scanning beams are opposite to each other.

2) Means corresponding to claim 2 In the figure, 1 is an article, 5 is a reading means, 10 is a barcode, 60 is a light emitting means, 61 is a light source, 65 is a reflecting polyhedron, and 69 is a light receiving means.

Therefore, the bar code 10 is read by rotating the plurality of reflection polyhedrons 65 at different periods from each other.

[Action]

1) Action corresponding to claim 1 The reflecting polyhedron 65 of the light projecting means 60 of the plurality of reading means 5 is rotated in opposite directions to reflect the light emitted from the light source 61, and the scanning beam is transmitted to the bar of the article 1. By projecting the light onto the code 10, the frequency of superimposition of the scanning beam on the surface of the bar code 10 is significantly reduced, and thus the occurrence rate of reading errors and unreadable of the bar code 10 can be significantly reduced.

2) Action corresponding to claim 2 The reflection polyhedron 65 of the light projecting means 60 of the plurality of reading means 5 is rotated at different rotation periods to reflect the light emitted from the light source 61 and scan at different speeds. Beam 1
By projecting light onto the bar code 10, the superimposition of the scanning beam on the surface of the bar code 10 is significantly reduced, so that the occurrence rate of reading errors and unreadable of the bar code 10 is reduced, and the reading performance is improved. it can.

〔Example〕

1) An embodiment corresponding to claim 1 An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The same reference numerals indicate the same objects throughout the drawings.

Product 1a, scanners 5a and 5c and polygon mirror 65 in FIG.
Reference numerals a and 65b respectively correspond to the article 1, the reading means 5 and the reflecting polyhedron 65 in FIG. 1A, and the light source 61a and the polygon mirror in FIG.
The light emitting unit 63 and the plane mirrors 64a and 64b (not described with reference to FIG. 8A) correspond to the light projecting means 60 in FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is a side view of scanners 5a and 5c provided to face each other in a tunnel 3a of a device in which the present invention is applied to the tunnel type bar code reader described in the conventional example. Polygon mirror 65b by rotation of M2
Is rotated to reflect the laser beam emitted from the light source 61a to project a scanning beam.

The rotation directions of the motor M1 of the scanner 5a and the motor M2 of the scanner 5c are set so that when the motors M1 and M2 rotate the polygon mirrors 65a and 65b, the scanning beams are emitted in opposite directions.

With such a configuration, as shown in FIG.
Bar code 10a of product 1a conveyed on conveyor 20a,
When scanning by the scanners 5a and 5c, the scanning beams scan in opposite directions, so that overlapping of the scanning beams is avoided, the frequency of occurrence of disturbance of reflected light is significantly reduced, and reading errors and inability to read can be prevented. Performance can be improved.

2) Embodiment corresponding to claim 2 An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The same reference numerals indicate the same objects throughout the drawings.

Product 1a, scanners 5a and 5d and polygon mirror 65 in FIG.
a is the article 1, the reading means 5 and the reflection polyhedron 6 in FIG.
5, corresponding to the light source 61a, the plane mirrors 64a and 64b, and the light emitting unit 63, which is not shown (described in FIG. 8A).
The plane mirrors 64a and 64b correspond to the light projecting means 60 of FIG. 1 (b).

FIG. 4 is a side view of scanners 5a and 5d provided to face each other in a tunnel 3a of a device in which the present invention is applied to the tunnel type bar code reader described in the conventional example. Polygon mirror 65b by rotation of M3
Is rotated to reflect the laser beam emitted from the light source 61b and emit a scanning beam.

The rotation directions of the motor M1 of the scanner 5a and the motor M3 of the scanner 5d are set so that when the motors M1 and M3 rotate the polygon mirrors 65a and 65b, the scanning beams are emitted with different rotation periods. For example, Boligon Mirror 65a
Is set at 6,000 rpm, and the rotation speed of the Boligon mirror 65b is set at 5,900 rpm.

With such a configuration, as shown in FIG.
Bar code 10a of product 1a conveyed on conveyor 20a,
When reading by the scanners 5a and 5d, the scanning time by the scanning beam is different, so that the frequency of overlapping at the same point is reduced, reading errors and inability to read can be prevented, and reading performance can be improved.

As another embodiment of the present invention, when a plurality of borgon mirrors 65a and 65b are rotated by one motor M, not shown, for example, a gear between the motor M and the borgon mirrors 65a and 65b is provided. In a power transmission mechanism such as a belt or the like, it is possible to cope by changing the rotation direction of the borgon mirrors 65a and 65b to opposite directions or using different rotation speeds.

Further, by applying both the invention of claim 1 and the invention of claim 2, it is possible to further reduce the overlap of the scanning beams and to obtain a higher effect.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the rotating direction of the reflecting polyhedron of the light projecting means of the plurality of reading means is rotated so that the scanning directions of the scanning beams are opposite to each other, or the reflecting polyhedron is rotated at different periods. By employing a rotating configuration, the rate at which a plurality of scanning beams are superimposed on a barcode written on an article is significantly reduced, and reading errors and inability to read can be prevented, and reading performance can be improved. This has the effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment corresponding to claim 1 of the present invention, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a claim of the present invention. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a tunnel type bar code reader, FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of a bar code, FIG. FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of a scanner, and FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example. In the figure, 1 is an article, 1a is a product, 5 is a reading means, 5a to 5d are scanners, 10 and 10a are bar codes, 60 is a light emitting means, 65 is a reflecting polyhedron, 65a and 65b are polygon mirrors, and 69 is a light receiving element. Means, 69a is a light receiving sensor, and M1 to M3 are motors.

Continuation of the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06K 7/10

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A light projecting means (60) for projecting a scanning beam by reflecting light emitted from a light source (61) on a surface of a rotating reflecting polyhedron (65), and projecting light from the light projecting means (60). Light receiving means (69) for receiving reflected light obtained by scanning a bar code (10) written on a moving article (1) with the lighted scanning beam and converting the reflected light into an electric signal.
A reading device for reading the barcode (10) by simultaneously scanning the respective scanning beams of the plurality of reading devices (5) with the respective scanning beams; The reading device according to claim 60, wherein the rotating direction of the reflecting polyhedron (65) is rotated so that the scanning directions of the scanning beams are opposite to each other. 2. A light projecting means (60) for projecting a scanning beam by reflecting light emitted from a light source (61) on a surface of a rotating reflecting polyhedron (65), and projecting light from the light projecting means (60). Light receiving means (69) for receiving reflected light obtained by scanning a bar code (10) written on a moving article (1) with the lighted scanning beam and converting the reflected light into an electric signal.
A reading device for reading the barcode (10) by simultaneously scanning the respective scanning beams of the plurality of reading devices (5) with the respective scanning beams; 60. The reading device according to 60), wherein the reflecting polyhedron (65) is rotated at different periods from each other.