Method of reading a data carrier including multiple rows of bar code

Claim 1

A method of reading a data carrier having a main data face containing a plurality of rows of parallel bars of different thicknesses and varying spacing in the form of a selected bar code readable by an optical detector, said rows extending in one direction and said bars extending in a perpendicular direction, there being an additional data face at each end of each row, a row indicator disposed in each additional data face of each row of said plurality of rows except in a first row and including a bar combination corresponding to a character of a first character set of the selected bar code, and a coded symbol corresponding to a character of a second character set of the selected bar code disposed in the additional data face of the first row of said plurality of rows and indicative of the total number of rows in said group, the coded symbol being interpreted by the optical detector as a character of the second character set and the row indicators being interpreted by the optical detector as a character of the first character set, the characters of the first character set being different from the characters of the second character set, said method comprising guiding a light beam across the data carrier to scan the bar codes, decoding the scanned bar code into alpha-numerical characters, determining the total number of rows by decoding the coded symbol in the first row, stopping guiding of the light beam across the data carrier, after all rows, in accordance with the total number of rows indicated by the coded symbol of the first row and the row indicators, have been scanned, and thereafter collating the scanned bar codes of the rows by means of said row indicators.

Claim 2

A method of reading a data carrier having a main data face containing a plurality of rows of parallel bars of different thicknesses and varying spacing in the form of a selected bar code readable by an optical detector, said rows extending in one direction and said bars extending in a perpendicular direction, there being an additional data face at each end of each row, a row indicator disposed in each additional data face of each row of said plurality of rows except in a first row and including a bar combination corresponding to a character of a first character set of the selected bar code, and a coded symbol corresponding to a character of a second character set of the selected bar code disposed in the additional data face of the first row of said plurality of rows and indicative of the total number of rows in said group, the coded symbol being interpreted by the optical detector as a character of the second character set and the row indicators being interpreted by the optical detector as a character of the first character set, the characters of the first character set being different from the characters of the second character set, said method comprising guiding a light beam across the data carrier to scan the bar codes, decoding the scanned bar code into alpha-numerical characters, determining the total number of rows by decoding the coded symbol in the first row, stopping guiding of the light beam across the data carrier, after all rows, in accordance with the total number of rows indicated by the coded symbol of the first row and the row indicators, have been scanned, and thereafter collating the scanned bar codes of the rows by means of said row indicators.