Indicia Reading Terminal Frame Quality Evaluation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Indicia reading terminals experience long trigger to read times due to processing frames of poor quality, which are either devoid of decodable indicia or insufficient quality due to factors like poor illumination, focusing issues, or hand jitter, leading to inefficiencies in decoding operations.
Innovation Solution
An indicia reading terminal that captures a succession of frames and subjects a certain frame to quality evaluation processing, responsive to the incidence and sharpness of edge representations, allowing for the cessation of decoding attempts on low-quality frames and prioritizing higher quality frames for decoding, with frame quality evaluation processing restricted to a predetermined time period.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the terminal processes all captured frames through decoding attempts, then complete decoding coverage is achieved, but trigger to read time increases significantly due to processing poor quality frames
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing frame quality evaluation before decoding attempts. The system assesses frame quality metrics such as edge sharpness, illumination adequacy, and focus quality in advance, and only proceeds with decoding for frames that meet quality thresholds. This preliminary filtering prevents wasted processing time on poor quality frames while ensuring that viable frames are decoded, thus resolving the contradiction between complete decoding coverage and reduced trigger to read time.
2Reliability
If the terminal attempts to decode frames with insufficient quality, then no potential decodable indicia are missed, but processing time is wasted on frames that cannot be decoded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling the frame quality evaluation system to automatically assess and filter frames based on predefined quality criteria. The system independently determines which frames are suitable for decoding without requiring manual intervention or post-processing correction, thereby improving processing efficiency while maintaining decoding accuracy through automated quality-based selection.
3Ease of operation
If the terminal processes frames without quality evaluation, then operational simplicity is maintained, but trigger to read time increases due to processing low quality frames
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual quality assessment with automated electronic frame quality evaluation processing. Instead of requiring operators to manually inspect frame quality, the system uses computational algorithms to automatically evaluate frame metrics such as edge sharpness, illumination levels, and focus quality, thereby maintaining operational simplicity while dramatically reducing trigger to read time by eliminating manual intervention and automatically filtering poor quality frames.
Data Source
AI summary
There is described an indicia reading terminal that can be operative to capture a succession of frames of image data and that can be operative so that a certain frame of the succession of frames is subject to quality evaluation processing where a result of the quality evaluation processing is responsive to one or more of an incidence and sharpness of edge representations of the frame of image data.