Abstract: A retail terminal includes a scale for weighing items to be purchased. The scale is operative to obtain a settled or stable weight of items placed thereon either after a predetermined time delay from when the items were placed on the scale or the receipt of an actuation signal from a trigger or actuator. This allows time for the scanning of an item of the items on the scale via a scanner of the retail terminal generally associated with the lifting of the item from the scale in order for the item to be scanned.

Abstract: A retail terminal includes a scale for weighing items to be purchased. The scale is operative to obtain a settled or stable weight of items placed thereon either after a predetermined time delay from when the items were placed on the scale or the receipt of an actuation signal from a trigger or actuator. This allows time for the scanning of an item of the items on the scale via a scanner of the retail terminal generally associated with the lifting of the item from the scale in order for the item to be scanned.

Abstract: A bill dispenser includes a cantilever and traction wheel attached thereto. The wheel includes a traction surface around a perimeter thereof for frictionally engaging a currency bill. Movement of the traction surface atop the bill is used for dispensing the bill from its bin.

Abstract: An off-scale item sensing apparatus and method which uses a light beam around a portion of the periphery of a weigh plate. The system includes a source for producing a light beam, a plurality of mirrors for directing the light beam along a path around a periphery of the weigh plate, a detector for receiving the light beam, and an alarm coupled to the detector for alerting an operator when the item is placed in the path of the light beam.

Abstract: A system and method for testing bar code scanner window viability which determines whether the window is scratched or otherwise damaged enough to require replacement. The system includes a laser beam source. The laser beam passes through a window glass for scanning a bar code label. Light reflected from the bar code label passes through the window glass and is detected and converted into an electrical signal. Finally, a processor determines the bar code information from the electrical signal and determines whether the window glass is damaged enough that the bar code information cannot accurately be determined. The method determines the variance between the widths of the bars and spaces from a plurality of bar code scans and compares the variance to a predetermined threshold. The window glass is replaced when the threshold is exceeded.

Abstract: A system and method for monitoring barcode label quality at a point of sale which alerts an operator of a defective label and stores the number of defective labels for each manufacturer. The system includes an optical scanner, including a controller and a memory, a quality indicator, and a point-of-service terminal. The system may additionally include a central host computer. The method of the present invention puts the scanner in predetermined operating modes which activate the quality monitoring functions listed above.

Abstract: A programming apparatus and method for optical scanners which employs bar code labels to convert one optical scanner into a mentor scanner and another optical scanner into a student scanner. A lightweight housing made of opaque plastic has a center portion and first and second end portions, the center portion containing a cavity, and the first and second end portions containing apertures therethrough and into the cavity. Within the cavity, two parallel diffusion screens are separated by a distance sufficient to convert a light beam from the mentor scanner into a plurality of point sources of light for reception and detection by the student scanner. Sockets within the end portions position the scanners and seal out ambient light.