Claims
- 1. The combination comprising:
- (a) a hand-held OCR wand having a photosensor array positioned to sense light reflected into said wand from a document through a reading aperture therein, the output of said array being a video signal,
- (b) a lamp carried by said wand for illuminating the document facing said aperture for reflection of light onto said array,
- (c) recognition means connected to said array to produce a control state when the video signal from said array is below a predetermined level,
- (d) timer means responsive to said control state and operable after a predetermined time delay to reduce the power supplied to said lamp, and
- (e) means to reset said timer means in response to a change of said control state.
- 2. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said array is a multi row, multi column matrix of light sensors and said recognition means includes a stored code unit responsive to each scan of all rows in said sensor array to produce said control state.
- 3. The combination set forth in claim 1 wherein means are provided for delaying by one scan of all rows in said array the application of said control state to said timer means.
- 4. The combination set forth in claim 1 in which said recognition means includes a stored program means to produce said control state when any black portion of a reflecting field facing said aperture is taller than a predetermined limit.
- 5. The combination comprising:
- (a) a hand-held OCR wand having a photosensor array positioned to secure light reflected into said wand from a document through a reading aperture, the output of said array being a video signal,
- (b) a lamp carried within said wand adapted to direct light through said aperture for reflection from the document back into said wand and said array,
- (c) recognition means connected to said array to produce a control voltage when the video signal from said array is below a predetermined level,
- (d) timer means responsive to said control voltage and operable after a predetermined time delay to reduce the power to said lamp, and
- (e) means to reset said timer means in response to removal of said control voltage.
- 6. The combination set forth in claim 5 in which said timer means is set for a three second delay.
- 7. In reading alphanumeric characters appearing on a data field illuminated by a lamp and wherein multiple frames of output are produced from a sensor array and where a first signal is developed for each black row in any frame and a second signal is developed when a too tall character is detected in any frame,
- (a) means responsive to said first signal to generate a control voltage when a predetermined number of said first signals are produced in a given frame,
- (b) means to generate said control voltage in response to said second signal,
- (c) timer means to produce an output signal in response to said control voltage after a predetermined time delay and operable to reduce power supplied to said lamp, and
- (d) reset means operable instantly to reset said timer upon removal of said control voltage.
- 8. In reading alphanumeric characters appearing on a data field illuminated by a lamp and wherein multiple frames of output are produced from a sensor array and where a first signal is developed for each black row in any frame and a second signal is developed when a too tall character is detected in any frame, the combination comprising:
- (a) means responsive to said first signal to generate a control voltage in response to one of a predetermined number of said first signals in a given frame and responsive to said second signal to generate said control voltage when a too tall character is detected in any frame,
- (b) timer means to produce an output signal in response to said control voltage after a predetermined time delay and operable to reduce power supplied to said lamp, and
- (c) reset means operable to reset said timer upon removal of said control voltage in a time short compared with said time delay.
Parent Case Info
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 596,170, filed July 16, 1975, now abandoned.
US Referenced Citations (3)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
596170 |
Jul 1975 |
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