An optoelectronic sensor is provided for a repeated detection of objects at different object distances, having a light receiver for generating a received signal from received light, having an evaluation unit for generating object information from the received signal, and having a distance sensor for determining the object distance from a respective object. The evaluation unit is here configured to acquire a measurement variable from the received signal with respect to an object, to associate the measurement variable with the object distance measured for the object, and to form a first distribution of the measurement variable via the object distance after detecting a plurality of objects.

Even if a size of a read image is large, a code search process can be speeded up to enable immediate output of a decoding result. Each time a predetermined number of lines of image data is taken, a pre-processing circuit executes pre-processing on the image data and calculates a characteristic amount indicating the likelihood of the code for each area in the image data. A processor determines a code candidate area based on the acquired characteristic amount and executes a decoding process of the determined area to generate a decoding result.

Recommended installation position and posture of a stationary code reader can be proposed to a user to facilitate installation work of the code reader by the user. An installation support device for the stationary code reader acquires camera information including a camera parameter of the code reader, code information to be read, and environment information including a conveying speed of a line, determines required field of view and depth of the code reader required to read a code under an environment specified by the environment information, and determines an installation pattern which is recommended installation position and posture of the code reader that can satisfy the required field of view and depth based on the camera information and the code information.

A package unit capturing arrangement includes a belt conveyor for transporting a package unit having an identification marking along a conveying direction and includes an optical sensor. The belt conveyor has, parallel to the conveying direction, a sideguard for preventing the packing unit from falling off a belt of the belt conveyor. The sideguard is designed to have a grate in a region. The sensor is arranged laterally with respect to the belt and behind the grate on a side of the sideguard facing away from the belt so that the belt and the grate lie in a field of view of the sensor. A depth of field region of the sensor is narrower than a width of the belt, with the result that the identification marking of the packing unit is optically capturable by the sensor.

A radio frequency identification (RFID) device programming apparatus includes a transport system (102) to transport media (104) in a transport direction (106), and an RFID device reader (112) to obtain first device identification data from a first RFID device (108) on the media and second device identification data from a second RFID device (110) on the media that is offset from the first RFID device in the transport direction. A first RFID device programmer (114) may program the first RFID device associated with the first device identification data, and a second RFID device programmer (116) may program the second RFID device associated with the second device identification data.

A device (30) is used to cushion at least one object (12a) in a container (10a). According to the invention, the device comprises: an automatic reading device (32) for reading an item of information which is present on the container (10a) and relates to a predetermined amount of cushioning material (28a-c) for a predefined combination of container (10a) and object (12a); a cushioning material provisioning device (38) for providing cushioning material (28a-c); and a control device (36) which receives a signal, based on the item of read information, from the automatic reading device (32) and initiates supply of the corresponding cushioning material (28a-c).

A package unit capturing arrangement includes a belt conveyor for transporting a package unit having an identification marking along a conveying direction and includes an optical sensor. The belt conveyor has, parallel to the conveying direction, a sideguard for preventing the packing unit from falling off a belt of the belt conveyor. The sideguard is designed to have a grate in a region. The sensor is arranged laterally with respect to the belt and behind the grate on a side of the sideguard facing away from the belt so that the belt and the grate lie in a field of view of the sensor. A depth of field region of the sensor is narrower than a width of the belt, with the result that the identification marking of the packing unit is optically capturable by the sensor.

An image capture system has an electronic rolling shutter (ERS) imager in area mode with high illumination to perform image acquisition (i.e. barcode reading) for fast moving items. Shearing distortion may occur but image blur is reduced and the image can be decoded. The ERS imager replaces global shutter imagers at a much lower cost and wider availability. The image capture system separates illumination into multiple bands in space and then synchronize the illumination bands with the exposure of the ERS imager in time. Much less illumination is required for the same image quality.

A conveyor includes a first conveyor belt with a first surface along which an article is conveyed in a conveyance direction from an upstream end to a downstream end, The first surface has an upstream end and a downstream end along the conveyance direction. A second conveyor belt is directly downstream of the first conveyor belt in the conveyance direction and has a second surface along which the article is conveyed in the conveyance direction from an upstream end to a downstream end. The downstream end of the first surface is at a height greater than the upstream end of the second surface. A first reading unit is positioned to read a symbol on the article through a gap left between the first and second conveyor belts.

According to an embodiment, a wireless tag reader apparatus includes a reader and a processor. The reader acquires the position information of the wireless tag based on the phase difference between the carrier waves and the response waves transmitted and received by the first antenna and the second antenna. The processor determines whether or not the wireless tag is in the predetermined zone based on the position information acquired by the reader.