Abstract: To enhance the effectiveness of personnel conducting inventory management functions, including data entry of information for products as to their presence, absence, or location, the operator-user is provided with a small and lightweight lapel data entry terminal which can be comfortably worn on a lapel of the operator's clothing, and which can be used to enter data into a remote data center. The lapel data entry terminal provides for acquisition and entry of data derived from verbal pronouncement of code data into a microphone which is coupled to a transmitter through a speech or voice recognition sub-assembly and an analog-to-digital converter sub-assembly. The lapel terminal provides for acquisition and entry of data derived from optical scanning of codes affixed to objects, for example, optical bar code patterns. Such optical codes are read by an optical code reader whose signal output is also coupled to the transmitter.

Abstract: A portable bar code scanner system uses various interchangeable interface boards which allow the scanner system to be used with a plurality of different input/output devices (transaction terminals, computers, cash registers) having different operating characteristics. One of these boards is capable of accepting and transmitting digital character strings of various bit lengths to accommodate the operating characteristics of input/output devices using data in a string of predetermined bit length.

Abstract: A bar code scanner has a laser which produces a beam incident on a deflector, such as a polygon, which projects a scan beam out of the scanner so as to scan a bar code; light reflected or scattered from the code being detected so as to provide signals from which the bar code may be decoded. In order to insure that the scan beam is incident on the code, a bright oblong spot is provided by a second laser and a mirror which deflects the beam from the second laser along a path, generally paralleling the scan beam, through a cylindrical lens, and intersecting the scan beam approximately in the center of the scan on the code. The laser producing the aiming spot and the deflector drive circuits are initiated upon actuation of a trigger.