Methods of identifying a characteristic of a clinical analysis specimen or a sample container containing the specimen are disclosed. The methods include moving the sample container along a track while causing translation and rotation of the sample container, and capturing two or more images of the sample container during the translation and rotation. The track may have one or more moveable belts contacting a carrier to rotate and translate the carrier holding the sample container. Image analysis may be used to read a barcode label of the sample container, determine HIL, and/or physical characteristics of the sample container. Apparatus for carrying out the method are described, as are other aspects.

An aspect is to provide a scanning device, a system, and a method in which an available communication band is not used up even if a plurality of scanning devices are connected to one unit of dedicated hardware. According to one embodiment, a scanning device includes: a camera configured to pick up an image; a reduction unit configured to reduce a data volume of an image corresponding to a merchandise to be outputted to an image recognition device from the image picked up by the camera; and an output unit configured to output the image with the reduced data volume to the image recognition device.

The present invention discloses an information delivery system based on packing box image recognition. The system comprises: a packing box body, wherein a display layer is arranged on a surface of the packing box body, a pixel density of the display layer is different from that of an adjacent region of the display layer, and the display layer is formed by a plurality of regularly arranged pixel particles; a hand-held mobile terminal, used for scanning the display layer to acquire image information, uploading the image information after decoding to a cloud server to acquire, push information, and displaying the information to consumers through a display module; and a cloud server, used for receiving decoded information after the image information is decoded and outputting the push information to the hand-held mobile terminal, so that a code scanning module of the hand-held mobile terminal is easier to automatically focus a code layer to fetch the image information by adjusting a pixel difference between the display layer and surrounding panels thereof on the packing box, and that commodity information is pushed without affecting the aesthetics of the packing box by using pixel particles arranged by specific rules to encode images of the display layer.

A video signal monitoring device includes a sensor installed in a display device and configured to detect luminance and/or chromaticity in a predetermined region among regions of a video displayed on the display device, a sensing result converting unit configured to convert the detected luminance and/or chromaticity into video identification information for identifying the video, a time measuring unit configured to acquire a clock time or a period of time at or during which the video was displayed, and a sensing result reading unit configured to output the video identification information and the clock time or the period of time.

A reading device includes a reading unit configured to illuminate a light beam towards an object to be read, to receive reflected light thereof and to read information of the object to be read, and an imaging unit configured to capture the object to be read, as an image, wherein an illumination direction of the light beam from the reading unit and an imaging direction of the imaging unit are set to be same.

An apparatus, application, and method for transmitting, receiving and providing data. One exemplary embodiment includes an apparatus with a handheld printer. The handheld printer may contain a base, a core, and a crown. The crown may contain a scanner and a printer. A further embodiment allows for a mobile device application may contain the date of the markdown, the description of the inventory, and a status of the markdown. The method may include an employee receiving information through communication with the handheld device, connecting the application with the handheld printer, and scanning the marked down item. The method may include a new tag that may be printed from the handheld printer.

A management system includes: an information terminal that reads an information code attached to a management target, the information code storing code identification information that specifies the management target; and a server communicable with the information terminal. The information terminal includes: a reading portion that optically reads display information including the information code; a position information acquisition portion that acquires position information of the information terminal; a terminal-side transmission portion that transmits the position information as reading position information to the server; and a notification portion that notifies predetermined information. The server includes: a storage portion that stores management information; a determination portion that determines whether the code identification information corresponds to information of the information code attached to the management target; and a server-side transmission portion that transmits a determination result to the information terminal. The notification portion notifies information with respect to the determination result.

This invention provides a system and method for enabling control of an illuminator having predetermined operating parameters by a vision system processor/core based upon stored information regarding parameters that are integrated with the illuminator. The parameters are retrieved by the processor, and are used to control the operation of the illuminator and/or the camera during image acquisition. In an embodiment, the stored parameters are a discrete numerical or other value that corresponds to the illuminator type. The discrete value maps to a corresponding value in look-up table/database associated with the camera that contains parameter sets associated with each of a plurality of values in the database. The data associated with the discrete value in the camera contains the necessary parameters or settings for that illuminator type. In other embodiments, some or all of the actual parameter information can be stored with the illuminator and retrieved by the camera processor.

At least some embodiments of the present invention are directed to barcode readers having a housing with upper and lower portions, and a platter. Additionally, the barcode readers include a platter frame and an imaging assembly, the first imaging assembly having a first field of view (FOV) directed through at least one of the substantially horizontal window or the substantially upright window of the housing, and a reader accessory removably coupled with at least one of the lower housing portion or the platter frame that includes a thermal transmitter. The thermal transmitter is thermally coupled with at least one of the housing frame or the platter frame to transfer thermal energy generated by the reader accessory thereto.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a measurement machine for measuring an object, and more particularly to a measurement machine such as a portable articulated arm coordinate measuring machine or a laser tracker that measures an object according to a measurement or inspection plan that is identified by a machine readable information symbol located on the object to be measured or on a drawing (e.g., a CAD drawing) of the object.