Document reader

Claim 2

In an apparatus for reading a longitudinal strip of visual indicia containing discrete alpha-numeric characters located along the face of a document, wherein the document has a constant thickness and its face is bounded along one side by a planar longitudinal reference edge, the document having a predetermined width dimension perpendicular to the reference edge, the strip of visual indicia being located within transversely spaced boundaries parallel to one another and to the reference edge of the document; a frame; an elongated document slot formed through the length of the frame; said document slot being bounded by a pair of opposed walls on said frame having opposed inner surfaces spaced apart to freely receive the thickness of a document between them, said walls having coplanar longitudinal edges and outer ends; said document slot also being bounded by a base on said frame that extends between said pair of walls at a location spaced inwardly from the longitudinal edges of the walls a distance less than the document height; whereby a document can be manually moved in a longitudinal direction within the document slot with respect to the frame, the document being hand-held and guided by sliding engagement of the base by the reference edge of the document; viewing means mounted to one of the walls for reflecting light along a scan line intersecting the path of the strip of visual indicia on a document within the document slot; optical character scanning means on said frame for electronically generating images of each alpha-numeric character as it traverses the scan line; and recognition processing means on said frame operatively connected to the character scanning means for analyzing the electronic images generated thereby and for encoding the images into a machine readable code.

Claim 3

In an apparatus for reading a longitudinal strip of visual indicia containing discrete alpha-numeric characters located along the face of a document, wherein the document has a constant thickness and its face is bounded along one side by a planar longitudinal reference edge, the document having a predetermined width dimension perpendicular to the reference edge, the strip of visual indicia being located within transversely spaced boundaries parallel to one another and to the reference edge of the document; an enclosure having longitudinal outer surfaces bounded by transverse end surfaces and covering a rigid frame; an elongated document slot formed through the length of the frame, said document slot being continued through one corresponding longitudinal outer surface of the enclosure and its transverse end surfaces; said document slot being bounded within the enclosure by a pair of opposed walls on said frame having opposed inner surfaces spaced apart to freely receive the thickness of a document between them, said walls having coplanar longitudinal edges and outer ends; said document slot also being bounded by a base that extends between said pair of walls at a location spaced inwardly from the longitudinal edges thereof a distance less than the document height; whereby a document can be manually moved in a longitudinal direction within the document slot with respect to the frame, the document being hand-held and guided by sliding engagement of the base by the reference edge of the document; viewing means mounted to one of the walls for reflecting light along a scan line intersecting the path of the strip of visual indicia on a document within the document slot; optical character scanning means mounted on said frame within the enclosure for electronically generating images of each alpha-numeric character as it traverses the scan line; and recognition processing means mounted on said frame within the enclosure and operatively connected to the character scanning means for analyzing the electronic images generated thereby and for encoding the images into a machine readable code.

Claim 4

In an apparatus for reading a longitudinal strip of visual indicia containing discrete alpha-numeric characters located along the face of a document, wherein the document has a constant thickness and its face is bounded along one side by a planar longitudinal reference edge, the document having a predetermined width dimension perpendicular to the reference edge, the strip of visual indicia being located within transversely spaced boundaries parallel to one another and to the reference edge of the document; an enclosure having longitudinal outer surfaces bounded by transverse end surfaces and covering a rigid frame; an elongated document slot formed through the length of the frame, said document slot being continued through one corresponding longitudinal outer surface of the enclosure and its transverse end surfaces; said document slot being bounded within the enclosure by a pair of opposed walls on said frame having opposed inner surfaces spaced apart to freely receive the thickness of a document between them, said walls having coplanar longitudinal edges and outer ends; said document slot also being bounded by a base that extends between said pair of walls at a location spaced inwardly from the longitudinal edges thereof a distance less than the document height; whereby a document can be manually moved in a longitudinal direction within the document slot with respect to the frame, the document being hand-held and guided by sliding engagement of the base by the reference edge of the document; viewing means mounted to one of the walls for reflecting light along a scan line intersecting the path of the strip of visual indicia on a document within the document slot; optical character scanning means mounted on said frame within the enclosure for electronically generating images of each alpha-numeric character as it traverses the scan line; and recognition processing means mounted on said frame within the enclosure and operatively connected to the character scanning means for analyzing the electronic images generated thereby and for encoding the images into a machine readable code.