Wideband label reading apparatus

Claim 2

An electro-optical label reading system comprising a vertical array of substantially parallel horizontally oriented reflective stripes coded in a combination of two stripes and three stripes, each of said stripes being selected from a predetermined group of colors, scanning means operative to scan a light beam across said reflective stripes, means for generating electrical signals in response to light reflected from said stripes, and means operative in response to said electrical signals to decode the data content of said stripes and including converter means to convert the format of the electrical signals generated in response to light reflected from the three-stripe combination to the digital format of the electrical signals generated in response to the light reflected from the two-stripe combinations.

Claim 3

An electro-optical label reading system according to claim 1 wherein data is encoded in a vertical array of horizontally oriented reflective stripes in accordance with the following table;

Claim 4

An electro-optical label reading system according to claim 1 wherein said converter means includes means responsive to coded data from the first stripe of said label to generate a first acceptance gate pulse of a duration substantially equal to that of the longest expected signal pulse train from a coded combination, four temporary storage means wherein the first and second temporary storage means are operative to store coded data from said first or third stripe and wherein the third and fourth temporary storage means are operative to store coded data from said second stripe, integrator means operative to exclude noise pulses from being stored in said temporary storage means, first loading means operative to load data from said first and third stripes into said first and second temporary storage means and operative to erase data stored in said third and fourth temporary storage means, second loading means operative to load data from said second stripe into said third and fourth temporary storage means, gating means operative to generate a shift pulse upon the coincidence of said first acceptance gate and the trailing edge of said data from said second stripe in a two-stripe combination or the coincidence of said acceptance gate and the trailing edge of said data from said third stripe in a three-stripe combination, and inhibit means operative to prevent more than one shift pulse from occurring within a fixed period of time.

Claim 5

An electro-optical label reading system including a label representing coded data and including a vertical array of substantially parallel horizontally oriented retroreflective stripes, said stripes being of four different colors and arranged in first and second code formats, said first code format including two-stripe combinations and said second code format including three-stripe combinations, apparatus for optically scanning said label, sensors operative in response to light from said label to produce signal pulses representative of said coded data, means for processing said signal pulses to decode the data content thereof, and means for converting the signal pulses representative of said three-stripe combinations to the same format as the signal pulses representative of the two-stripe combinations.

Claim 6

An electro-optical label reading system including a label representing coded data and including a vertical array of substantially parallel horizontally oriented retroreflective stripes, said stripes being of four different colors and arranged in first and second code formats, said first code format including two-stripe combinations and said second code format including three-stripe combinations, apparatus for optically scanning said label, sensors operative in response to light from said label to produce signal pulses representative of said coded data, means for processing said signal pulses to decode the data content thereof, and means for converting the signal pulses representative of said three-stripe combinations to the same format as the signal pulses representative of the two-stripe combinations.

Claim 7

The invention according to claim 4 wherein said stripes are arranged in first and second selected combinations of orange, blue, white and black stripes, said first selected combinations being two-stripe combinations of orange, blue or white stripes with the first stripe of each two-stripe combination being one unit high and the second stripe of each combination being two units high, said second selected combinations being three-stripe combinations of orange, blue, white or black stripes, each stripe being of equal height and the second stripe of each three-stripe combination being black.

Claim 8

An electro-optical label reading system according to claim 3 wherein said temporary storage means includes multivibrator binary registers and wherein said first and second loading means are one-shot multivibrators.

Claim 9

An electro-optical label reading system according to claim 3 wherein said inhibit means includes first and second one-shot multivibrators operative to generate delay pulses, an OR gate operative to receive and pass said delay pulses to thereby inhibit said gating mEans and wherein said integrator means is a Schmitt integrator.