JPS61253586A - Bar code reader - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the reading efficiency of bar codes put to various positions of plural articles by registering previously the position of a bar code reader for each article and setting the reader at registered positions. CONSTITUTION:A reading window 13 is formed on the upper surface 11a of a stage board 11 and an article containing a bar code is slid on the side surface 12b of a guide plate 12. A bar code reader 18 performs registration as follows. That is, a mode key 16a is turned on to set a position memory mode and a shift key 16c is turned on to revolve a step motor 20. When the reader 18 is moved up to a position distant from an original point by a distance (x), a register key 1 is pushed on a keyboard 14 for selection of a register position 1. Then a register key 16b is pushed. In the same way, a register position 2 is selected for registration with the 2nd article. When the bar code of the article registered first is read, a register lamp L1 showing the register position 1 glows with push of the key 16c. Then the motor 20 is driven to set the reader 18 at a proper position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a barcode reading device for a plurality of articles having barcodes attached at different positions.

(Prior Art) In a utility model registration application entitled "Barcode Reader" dated the same date as the present application, the present inventor has disclosed a guide having a sliding surface for bringing a barcode reading article into contact with a base plate having a barcode reader. We proposed a barcode reader that attaches a plate and allows the relative position of the barcode reader and the slide surface to be adjusted. According to this barcode reader,
By changing the relative position of the reader and the slide surface according to the barcode position on the article, the barcode can be easily and reliably read at a high reading rate no matter where the barcode is located on the regular article.

However, if the size of the article or the position of the barcode varies, the position of the guide plate must be reset each time it is read, which is a cumbersome task and results in poor reading efficiency.

(Object and Structure of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to simplify the reading of barcodes of a plurality of articles having barcodes attached at various positions. In order to achieve this, the proper position of the barcode reader can be registered in advance for each barcode reading article, and the reader can be set at the registered position with a simple operation for reading.

(Example) FIG. 1 shows a barcode reading device according to the invention.

In the barcode reading device 1, a guide plate 12 is fixedly provided on a base plate 11, and an elongated reading window 13 is formed in the center of the upper surface 11a of the base plate 11. This reading window 13 is fitted with a transparent protective film made of glass or the like to reduce the influence of external light and to provide dustproof measures.

On the upper surface of the guide plate 12, there is a keyboard 14 for inputting auxiliary data (for example, article name, number of articles) when reading a barcode, a display 15 for displaying read barcode data, and a barcode to be described later. Function key 16 for inputting data specifying the position of the reader
and is provided. Also, the front side surface 1 of the guide plate 12
2b is a sliding surface on which the barcode reading article is slid without contacting it, and this sliding surface 12b
There are pin holes 12c, 12c for attaching an attachment for reading the barcode of a card-like article, which will be described later.
is provided.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line FF in FIG. 1, showing the internal structure of the base plate 11.

Inside the base plate 11, there are two support plates 11c.

A threaded shaft 17 is rotatably supported by 11c.

A barcode reader 18 is screwed onto this threaded shaft 17. This barcode reader 18 has a built-in light emitting element and a light receiving element, and when reading a barcode, light emitted from the light emitting element passes through the reading window 13 and hits the barcode of the article sliding on the top surface of the base plate 11. The light is reflected, received by a light receiving element, and transmitted to a control section in the base plate 11 via a cord 19.

A gear 17a is attached to one end of the threaded shaft 17 (the right end in FIG. 2).
is attached, and this gear 17a is a gear 21 attached to one end of the rotating shaft 20a of the step motor 20.
It meshes with.

On the other hand, the support plate 11e and the LIC are limit switches 22.2 for detecting the inner end position of the barcode reader 18.
3 is provided. Reader 18 is limit switch 2
The position of the chain line in the figure where 3 is turned on is the origin position of the reader 18.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the function keys 16 provided on the top surface of the guide plate 12.
This key is used to switch the operating mode of the device from normal reading mode to position storage mode in order to memorize the proper position of 8. When this mode key 16a is turned on, the mode lamp M
lights up. The registration key 16b is a key that is pressed to register the position of the barcode reader 18 when it is determined to be a desired proper position, and after the first registration is completed, the number key "1" on the keyboard 14 is pressed. Then, when another registration is completed and the number key "2" on the keyboard 14 is pressed, another registration lamp L2 lights up. The movement key 16c and the LED are keys that are pressed to move the barcode reader 18 in one direction (rightward in FIG. 2) or the opposite direction (leftward in FIG. 2). For movement in the direction, step motor 20
This is done by rotating the motor in the forward or reverse direction.

Figures 4(a) and 4(b) show two shaped articles with barcodes attached at different positions.

In (a), the center line of the barcode is located at a distance of X from one side of the regular-shaped article, and in (b), the center line of the barcode is located at a distance of y from one side of the regular-shaped article 30.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a bar code reading device according to the present invention, in which the same components as those shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the figure, 31 is a CPU that performs arithmetic processing according to a program stored in a memory 32 having a ROM configuration;
34 is a barcode decoder for decoding the barcode data read by the barcode reader 18; 35 is for decoding the data input from the keyboard 14; keyboard decoder, 36 is CPU3
1, a display decoder for decoding the barcode display data from 1, 37 a drive circuit for driving the motor 20 for moving the barcode reader 18, 38 an input board for inputting the limit switch 23 signal, and 39 a host computer. This is an interface driver that communicates with 40.

Next, the barcode reading operation according to the present invention will be explained using the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, it is determined whether the mode key lea is turned on or not, whether it is the normal reading mode or the position storage mode (F-1
), and as a result, when the mode key 16a is turned on, the step motor 20 is driven to move the barcode reader 18 to the origin position (the position indicated by the broken line in FIG. 2), as shown in FIG. 6(b). and lights up the mode lamp M (F
-2) Whether or not the reader 18 has reached the origin position can be determined by turning on the limit switch 23, and that position is stored as the origin.

Now, suppose that the position of a barcode on a certain article is a distance of X from one side as shown in FIG. , it is determined whether or not the movement key 16c is turned on (F-3), and when it is turned on, the step motor 2
0 in the corresponding direction and move the barcode reader 18 to the left in FIG. 2 (F-4),
8 moves to almost the center of the barcode to be read, release the movement key 16c. If the reader 18 has moved a little too far at this time, press the movement key 16d (F-5) to reverse the step motor 20 and read the reader 18. (F-6).

When the barcode reader 18 reaches the proper reading position, that is, the distance X from the origin position, the number key "1" on the keyboard 14 is pressed (F-7), thereby selecting the registered position rlJ. Make sure that the registration lamp L
□ lights up (F-8).

Here, before registering the reading position for the next barcode reading item, in order to confirm the reading position for the first barcode reading item that has just been registered, step (F-8) is followed by step ( F-3), (F-5)
, (F-7), and (F-9) to proceed to step (F-11) shown in FIG. 6(C). At this stage, the registration key 16 is
b has not been pressed yet, and the mode key 16a has not been pressed again (F-12), so when the first barcode reading article is slid on the base plate 11 while contacting the sliding surface 12b, , the barcode attached to the read article is recognized as shown in FIG. 6(d) (F-13
), a check digit is calculated from the read barcode data (F-14), and its correctness is determined (F-14).
-15) If the barcode is correct, the buzzer sounds and the read barcode is digitally displayed on the display 15 (see Figure 2) (F-16). This confirms that the registered reading position is correct. , and press the registration key 16b to confirm the completion of registration.

On the other hand, in step (F-11) it is determined whether the registration key 16b has been pressed, and if it has been pressed, it is checked whether the registration lamp L1 is lit (F-17), and as a result, the registration lamp L1 is lit. At this time, the current position of the barcode reader 18 (the proper position of the first barcode reader that has already been registered) is stored in the memory 33 (see Figure 1).
F-18).

The process is similar to that described above when registering the proper position of the reader 18 for a second article with a barcode attached at a different position.

That is, turn on the movement keys 16c and 16d (F-3
, F-5) The step motor 20 is rotated to move the reader 18 left and right (F-4, F-6), and the bar code is read from the approximately center position of the bar code attached to the article (for example, from the origin position). In this state, press the number key "2" (F-9) to enter the registered position "
2” and confirm that you have selected the registration lamp L2.
(F-10), then step (F-13)
, F-14, F-15, F-16) is the same as described above. In this way, when registration of the proper position of the reader 1B for the second barcode reading article is completed, pressing the registration key 16b (F-1
1), the current position of the reader 1B at that time is stored in the memory 33 (F-19).

In this embodiment, when the registration of the proper positions of the reader 1B for the two articles is completed as described above, when the mode key 16a is pressed again (F-12), the mode lamp M turns off (F-20). Enter normal reading mode.

In the reading mode, the barcode reading article is slid on the base plate 11 and is in a standby state until the barcode attached thereto is read (F-21).

If you want to read the barcode of the first registered article to be read, press the movement key 16c based on the position of the reader 18 at that time (F-22), and the registration lamp indicating the registration position rlJ will be displayed. L1 lights up and the difference between the registered position and the current position at that time is calculated (F-2
3) Based on the difference, the rotation direction and the number of steps of the step motor 20 (see FIG. 2) are stored (F-24).

Then, the step motor 20 is driven to decrease the number of steps by 1 (F-25), repeat the steps (F-25) until the number of steps becomes 0 (F-26), and when the number of steps reaches 0, the reader 18 is memorized for reading the next barcode reading article ((F-27)).

When the barcode reader 18 is thus set at an appropriate position, the first article to be read is slid in one direction on the base plate 11 while contacting the sliding surface. As a result, when the barcode on the item is read (F-21), a check digit is calculated to eliminate reading errors (
F-31), and it is determined whether the calculated value is correct or not (F-32)
If it is correct, a buzzer sounds and the read barcode is displayed on the display (F-33).

The barcode data read at the same time is stored or transferred to the outside (F-34), thus completing the barcode reading for the first barcode read article.

Similarly, if you want to read the barcode of the second registered article to be read, press the movement key 16 from the standby state.
When d is pressed (F-28), the registration lamp L2 indicating the registration position "2" lights up, and the reader 1 memorized at the registered position and the current position at that time (step CF-27)
Calculate the difference between 8 and 8 (F-29), and store the rotational direction and step number of the step motor 20 based on the difference (F-29).
F-30), then the steps mentioned above (F-25, F
-26, F-27), followed by the steps mentioned above (F-31, F-32, F-33,
F-34).

In the above embodiment, the case where proper reading positions are registered for two items whose barcodes are to be read is illustrated.
It doesn't matter how many more.

In addition, although the guide plate 12 on one base plate 11 is shown as being fixed to the base plate 11, it may be made to be able to slide on the single base plate 11. By doing this, it is possible to write barcodes on articles of various shapes. It becomes possible to read.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention enables the proper position of the barcode reader to be registered in advance for each barcode reading article, and when reading, the reader can be moved with a simple operation. Since the barcodes can be set at the registered positions, the barcodes of a plurality of articles with barcodes attached at various positions can be read efficiently without any troublesome work.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the barcode reading device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line FF in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a function of the barcode reading device shown in FIG. 1. An enlarged perspective view of the key, FIGS. 4A and 4B are two examples of barcode reading articles, FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the barcode reading device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 6A and 6B are B),(
C) and (D) are flowcharts illustrating barcode reading position registration and barcode reading operations. 1-... Barcode reading device, 11... Base plate, 12...
...Guide plate, 12b---Sliding surface, 13...Reading window, 14...Keyboard, 15...Display, 16...Function key, 16a...Mode key, 16b. Registration key, 16c, lad...
Movement key, 18... Barcode reader, 20... Step motor. Patent applicant: Nippon Consultants Co., Ltd. Agent: Patent attorney: Hiroshi Suzuki 1llll No. 2Ii No. 3111

Claims (1)

[Claims] A base plate having a sliding surface on which a barcode reading article is slid while in contact with the article, a movable barcode reader that makes the distance to the sliding surface of the base plate variable, and the barcode reader relative to the sliding surface. position setting means for setting a desired position of the barcode read article; position storage means for storing the desired position for each barcode read article; and a reader drive for moving the barcode read article to the desired position set by the position setting means. A barcode reading device comprising: means.