A method of assisting in focusing a three dimensional camera system on an object within a field of view is disclosed. The process involves at the camera system, determining a distance D in a z direction, within the field of view, to a current focal plane; and rendering to a display, an aimer graphic element with the Z direction distance equal to D in a manner that causes the aimer graphic element to move in the Z direction with changes in the focal plane.

Near and far imagers image close-in and far-out targets over relatively wider and relatively narrower imaging fields of view, respectively. An aiming assembly directs to a target a visible aiming light pattern having an aiming light spot and a pair of collinear aiming light lines. The aiming light spot is substantially centered between the aiming light lines. A controller determines a distance to the target based on a position of the aiming light spot in the imaging field of view of a default one of the imagers, selects at least one of the imagers based on the determined distance, and enables both the close-in and the far-out targets to be positioned substantially entirely within the respective imaging field of view of the selected imager.

An imaging sensor of an imaging reader senses return light from a target to be read by image capture along an imaging axis over a field of view that extends along mutually orthogonal, horizontal and vertical axes. Two aiming light assemblies are offset from the sensor and are spaced apart along the horizontal axis at opposite sides of the sensor, and direct two aiming light lines, each having a predetermined brightness, at the target. The aiming lines are collinear along the horizontal axis and have inner linear end regions that overlap on the target to form a bright, linear, aiming mark having a brightness greater than the predetermined brightness to visually indicate a center zone of the field of view, as well as outer linear end regions that visually indicate approximate end limits of the field of view, over a range of working distances.

A system for selectively reading code symbols includes a code-symbol-capturing subsystem for acquiring information about code symbols within the code-symbol-capturing subsystem's field of view. The system also includes a code-symbol-decoding processor that detects a marked region of interest within the code-symbol-capturing subsystem's field of view. After initialization, the code-symbol-decoding processor decodes only those code symbols falling within the marked region of interest.

An attachment for a smart phone includes a targeting optic system which, when the attachment is secured to the backside of the smart phone, receives illumination emitted by the white light source and directs the illumination towards the target area from a location that is not directly in front of the camera's image sensor. The attachment directs illumination from the white light source in a direction parallel to the backside of the smart phone to a distance farther away from the camera's image sensor than a distance between the white light source and the camera's image sensor, and from that distance farther away from the camera's image sensor, directs the illumination into the target area.

An assisted aimer for rapid, accurate, and low-cost imaging of barcodes, includes a hand-held device, such as a smart phone or tablet, having a digital camera with built-in flash, a specialized software application executing on the phone, and an aimer apparatus attached in front of the flash aperture for forming an aimer beam at a predetermined distance. The aimer beam assists a user in accurately pointing the device at a target barcode. The aimer is attachable directly to the smart phone or camera, or is made a part of an enclosure that accepts the smart phone or tablet into a self-aligning receiving space Aiming beam assistance enables the camera, its auto-focus, and the installed software application image processing to deliver rapid, snappy, barcode imaging.

A handheld code reader may include a main structure, a handle extending from the main structure, and a trigger configured to be pulled by a finger of a user holding the handle. The code reader may further include a conductive element, an antenna configured to sense an inductive change caused by the trigger moving the conductive element, and electronics in electrical communication with the antenna, the electronics configured to determine when the inductive change is indicative of a user selecting to activate a pre-trigger aiming function.

An optical information reader includes a main body portion in which a reading opening is formed; and a grip portion that is connected to a section of the main body portion other than a section in which the reading opening is formed, and is gripped by a user. The reader further includes a light-receiving sensor that captures an image of a predetermined imaging area AR through the reading opening; and a control circuit that performs an interpreting process of a code image of an information code imaged by the light-receiving sensor. An extending portion that extends towards the information code side is provided in a periphery of the reading opening. An opened portion is formed in a section of the extending portion other than a section on the grip portion side.

A multi-functional optical illuminator comprises: a light pipe (302) with an open frame structure for visual aiming of the illuminator to facilitate an alignment of a barcode; and a circuit board (304), attached to a back opening of the light pipe (302), comprising six dark field LEDs (308) for generating six dark field illuminations and two bright field LEDs (306) for generating bright field illuminations; wherein, the two bright field LEDs (306) produce two alternating point sources for providing bright field illuminations in different directions to minimize a specular reflection hot spot without using any diffuser during the bright field illuminations; wherein, chamfered inner edges of the light pipe (302) emit the dark field illuminations in different orientations from the light pipe (302). The illuminator is designed to provide dual-field, multi-color, multi-directional illumination. The non-closed form option not only can further reduce the weight but also can allow arrange opening area clearance for: (1) visual aiming and alignment in application, especially for hand held application; (2) reducing illumination crosstalk to unwanted directions; and for (3) mechanical integration. The improvements allow the illuminator to read direct product marking (DPM) type of barcodes.

Methods and apparatus for locating small indicia in large images are disclosed herein. An example method includes: identifying an aiming pattern zone that includes a detected or presumed location of an aiming light pattern, wherein an offset between the location and a center of image data varies due to a parallax; determining one or more coordinates of the aiming pattern zone; capturing image data representing an image of an environment appearing within a field of view (FOV) of a handheld scanner including the indicia; encoding the one or more coordinates into a tagline of the image; and providing the image with the tagline to an indicia decoder such that the indicia decoder attempts to decode the indicia from the image data starting in a region of the image data selected based upon the one or more coordinates.