Single Camera POS Scanner with Adjustable Field of View
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Solution Overview
Problem
Point-of-Sale (POS) devices with composite scanners, including both lasers and cameras, are cumbersome and expensive, and imaging scanners with multiple cameras are costly due to the need for multiple cameras to view multiple sides of an object, limiting their efficiency and accessibility.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus using a single camera with a mirror and drive wheel system to intermittently stop and reflect the camera's field of view, allowing for adjustable fields of view equivalent to those achieved by scanners with multiple cameras, through a Geneva drive configuration and additional stationary mirrors, enabling the capture of multiple images with different focus and lighting settings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple cameras are used to achieve multiple fields of view for bioptic scanning, then the scanning capability and field of view coverage are improved, but the device complexity and cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by making the mirror movable instead of stationary. A single camera配合a movable mirror can dynamically change the field of view by reflecting light from different angles, achieving the same multi-directional scanning capability as multiple fixed cameras would provide. The mirror rotates to present different reflective surfaces to the camera, effectively creating multiple virtual camera positions with a single physical camera.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a mirror as an intermediary element between the light source and the camera. This mirror acts as a mediator that redirects light paths, allowing a single camera to capture images from multiple directions. The mirror serves as the intermediate component that enables one camera to perform the function of multiple cameras, reducing system complexity while maintaining scanning versatility.
2Device complexity
If a single camera is used instead of multiple cameras, then the device complexity and cost are reduced, but the ability to capture multiple fields of view simultaneously is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action by rapidly rotating the mirror back and forth to sequentially present different fields of view to the camera. The mirror rotates to capture one field of view, then rotates to capture the next, creating a periodic scanning pattern. This rapid periodic motion allows the single camera to effectively scan multiple directions in quick succession, maintaining scanning productivity equivalent to or better than multiple simultaneous cameras.
Solution Approach 2:
The dynamic rotation of the mirror enables the single camera to sequentially access multiple fields of view that would otherwise require multiple stationary cameras. The mirror's continuous rotational motion creates dynamic field of view switching, allowing the system to maintain high scanning speed while using fewer components. The camera captures images at different angular positions during the mirror's rotation cycle.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces the complexity and cost of POS scanners by allowing a single camera to achieve the equivalent field of view of multiple-camera scanners, enhancing scanning efficiency and reducing the need for expensive multi-camera systems, while improving usability and reducing operational complexity for cashiers.
Implementation Method 1
reflecting a direction that a lens of a camera is pointed at to a field of view produced by reflection off the mirror
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 1C
AI summary
A scanner (151, 161, 300, 400) having a single integrated camera (111, 131, 330, 410) and a mechanism to adjustably alter the field of view of the camera (111, 131, 330, 410) to provide a field of view coverage area equivalent to scanners having two or more integrated cameras.