The method linking information in a database to a specific product unit in a production run and making this information available to a user comprises the steps of providing each product unit with a unique identifier tag, providing a database having units of information and image information of each unique identifier tag; linking at least one of said units of information to each of said unique identifier tags; and providing a user with a reader being able to read said unique identifier tag. The reader reads said unique identifier tag as image information and said request system compares said unique identifier tag image information from said reader with said said unique identifier tag image information stored in the database to retrieve said at least one unit of information linked to said unique identifier tag and provides said information linked to said unique identifier tag to said user.

A barcode scanner assembly for capturing at least one object appearing in a field of view (FOV) is provided that includes a scanner enclosure including a scanner enclosure body, a printed circuit board (PCB) at least partially disposed within the scanner enclosure, an imaging assembly coupled to the PCB, and a decode assembly positioned on the PCB. The scanner enclosure body has a top portion, a bottom portion opposite the top portion, a front portion, and a rear portion opposite the front portion and further defines an internal cavity. The PCB is positioned substantially parallel to an outbound imaging axis.

An indicia reader can include an indicia-capturing system, an indicia-decoding module, and an audio indicator system having a sound source. An indicia-reader housing can support these components, and the housing includes two adjacent mounting surfaces and a sound port opening formed within a portion of the common edge of the two adjacent surfaces. The indicia reader can be operatively mounted in at least two different positions by attaching one of the two adjacent surfaces to a support structure. The reader's sound port opening is in acoustic communication with the sound source of the audio indicator for transmitting audible indications emitted via the audio indicator system when the indicia reader is mounted in either of the at least two different mounting positions.

The present invention relates to an intelligent market automatic clearing system comprises a device part and a system part, wherein the device part comprises commodity electronic price tags, a self-service weighing apparatus, a shopping ring, a mobile phone, a shopping basket and a market automatic clearing device. The system part comprises intelligent market automatic clearing APP software, an intelligent market clearing system and an intelligent market clearing system data cloud service platform. The market automatic clearing device comprises a shopping basket moving frame, a visual recognition apparatus, a mechanical commodity picking apparatus, a bar code and RFID recognition apparatus table, an anti-theft decoding apparatus, a mechanical packaging apparatus table, a clearing table, an anti-theft detection door and an automatic channel door.

A budget-constrained, machine-learning system is described that creates a shopping (purchase) list and performs on-line ordering and delivery. It receives the shopper's past purchase receipts from a retail store, pharmacy and/or auto center. It may attach to a web server to acquire on-line browsing information. The system creates a Purchase List from acquired information. The system receives a budget and determines if all items on the Purchase List can be bought under the budget. If not, the items are given priority ratings. The system walks down the list to in decreasing priority rating order identifying items to purchase without exceeding the budget. The shopper may override the items identified to be purchased. Shopper override is monitored by a machine learning engine which adjusts the priority rating of the item or the period of replacement for the next shopping trip/session, allowing for more accurate results and flexibility.

An indicia reader can include an indicia-capturing system, an indicia-decoding module, and an audio indicator system having a sound source. An indicia-reader housing can support these components, and the housing includes two adjacent mounting surfaces and a sound port opening formed within a portion of the common edge of the two adjacent surfaces. The indicia reader can be operatively mounted in at least two different positions by attaching one of the two adjacent surfaces to a support structure. The reader's sound port opening is in acoustic communication with the sound source of the audio indicator for transmitting audible indications emitted via the audio indicator system when the indicia reader is mounted in either of the at least two different mounting positions.

Embodiments related to local tone mapping for symbol reading. A local pixel neighborhood metric is determined for at least one raw pixel in a region-of-interest, which identifies on one or more raw pixels near the at least one raw pixel. A local mapping function is determined for the at least one raw pixel that maps the value of the raw pixel to a mapped pixel value with a mapped bit depth that is smaller than the bit depth associated with the raw image. The local mapping function is based on a value of at least one other raw pixel near the at least one raw pixel within the local pixel neighborhood metric, and at least one parameter determined based on the raw image. A mapped image is computed for the region-of-interest by applying the local mapping function to the raw image.

A method of reading an optical code (20) is provided in which image data with the code (20) are recorded by an image sensor (24), a first processing unit (30) reads the image data from the image sensor (24) and generates metadata with respect to the image data and/or to the code (20) in the course of a pre-processing of the image data, and a second processing unit (32) reads the code (20) after the pre-processing by the first processing unit (30), The second processing unit (32) reads the code (20) solely from the metadata without making use of the image data.

Animals may be managed by a variety of systems, processes, and techniques. In particular implementations, an animal management system may include a first radio frequency (RF) reader system adapted to scan for radio frequency identification tags (RFID) tags in a first area and a second radio frequency (RF) reader system adapted to scan for RFID tags in a second area that overlaps with the first area and send information regarding detected RFID tags in the second area to the first RF reader system. The first RF reader system may compare the RFID tags detected by the second RF reader system to those detected by the first RF reader system and dedupe detections of the same RFID tags.

A code symbol reading device includes an imaging unit and a control unit. The imaging unit is configured to image a code symbol to facilitate capturing image data. The control unit is configured to receive the image data captured by the imaging unit, decode data encoded in the code symbol based on the image data, operate the imaging unit under a first imaging condition for imaging the code symbol, operate the imaging unit under a second imaging condition for imaging the code symbol, and switch between the first imaging condition and the second imaging condition in response to at least one of (i) the control unit failing to decode the data encoded in the code symbol or (ii) receiving a switch command from an operator. The second imaging condition includes switching among a plurality of the mutually different imaging conditions according to a switching procedure.