Wearable Gesture-Controlled Symbol Reader
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hand-held machine-readable symbol readers are bulky, inefficient, and often capture unnecessary environmental data, occupying one hand and requiring manual triggering, which limits their usability and power efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A wearable image sensor system with a head-mounted interface that uses finger-mounted indicia to control the scanning process, employing a low-power processor to detect gestures and activate a higher-power processor for decoding, and includes a light source for illumination, allowing for efficient data capture and processing of machine-readable symbols within the user's field of view.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If hand-held machine-readable symbol readers are used, then they can capture and decode machine-readable symbols, but they occupy the operator's hand and are bulky making them difficult to use
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical hand-held device with a wearable computing system that includes an image sensor, processing unit, and output device integrated into clothing or accessories. This substitution eliminates the need for manual holding and operation, transforming the mechanical interaction into an automated wearable system that captures and processes symbols without occupying the user's hands.
2Productivity
If hand-held machine-readable symbol readers continuously scan the environment, then they can detect symbols, but they capture significantly more environmental data than necessary consuming excessive power
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by using a low-power processor to continuously monitor the environment and detect gestures or indications of interest. When a relevant event is detected, the system then activates the higher-power image sensor and decoding resources only for that specific region or time, rather than continuously processing all environmental data. This staged approach ensures symbol detection capability while minimizing overall power consumption.
3Productivity
If hand-held machine-readable symbol readers operate continuously, then they can decode symbols, but they consume excessive power
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic action by operating the image sensor and decoding processes only when triggered by detected gestures or events, rather than continuously. The system alternates between low-power monitoring mode and active scanning/decoding mode, activating high-power components only when necessary. This periodic operation maintains symbol decoding capability while significantly reducing average power consumption compared to continuous operation.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for capturing machine-readable symbols using a finger mounted indicia. The system includes an image sensor that captures a plurality of images from the field of view of the image sensor. An occurrence of a gesture is detected in the plurality of images, in which the gesture is represented by a trace of a number of movements of a finger mounted indicia. In response to detecting the occurrence of the gesture, an at least attempt is triggered to decode one or more machine-readable symbols represented in the images. The gesture may be used to indicate a region of interest that includes the machine-readable symbol. Such indication may improve the efficiency and processing time needed to detect and decode a machine-readable symbol.