JP2772691B2 - Barcode signal transfer device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a barcode signal transfer device including a barcode reader and a portable terminal.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, barcodes have been increasingly used as information input means for part numbers, quantities, etc. in sales, inventory surveys, replenishment of goods, ordering, etc. in shops and warehouses, and will continue to be used as input devices in the future. It is expected to become more and more popular.

2. Description of the Related Art As one type of barcode reading device, a small-sized device combining a handy type barcode reader and a portable terminal is known. The barcode photoelectrically read by the barcode reader is converted into an electric signal and sent to the portable terminal through an electric wire, and the portable terminal performs an appropriate process. It is sent to a host computer or the like.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in this type of conventional barcode reading device, since the barcode reader and the portable terminal are connected by an electric wire, the connection portion is often disconnected, and even when used, the electric wire is not used. There was a problem of getting in the way. For this reason, devices for wirelessly connecting a bar coder reader to a portable terminal have been developed.However, when a bar code signal is transferred, brightness modulation or frequency modulation is performed, which consumes a large amount of power and has a large circuit configuration. However, there has been a problem that the cost is increased and the cost is increased.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a conventional problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive barcode signal transfer device that consumes less power, has a simple circuit configuration, and has a simple circuit configuration.

Means for Solving the Problems According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a first pulse is generated from a barcode signal obtained by reading by a barcode reader at a rising edge of a barcode from black to white. First pulse generating means, second pulse generating means for generating a second pulse different from the first pulse at the fall of the bar code from white to black, and synthesizing the first and second pulses And a synthesizing means for outputting a black-and-white change signal.

Operation Therefore, according to the present invention, when a barcode signal is transferred, barcode data is transferred only by transferring a pulse signal representing a black and white change, so that power consumption required for signal transfer and processing is reduced. Has the effect that can be.

Embodiment FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a portable terminal, which includes a transfer light receiving unit 2, a liquid crystal display unit 3, a key operation unit 4, and a connector 5 for connecting to an external device. Reference numeral 6 denotes a bar code reader, which is a transfer light emitting unit 7 for sending a transfer light signal to the transfer light receiving unit 2 of the portable terminal 1, and which reads a bar code 10 of a bar code label 9 and converts it into an electric signal. Is provided. The bar code 10 is irradiated with light from the bar code reading unit 8, receives the reflected light, converts it into an electric signal, and sends the electric signal to the transfer light emitting unit 7. The transfer light emitting unit 7 converts the transmitted electric signal into an optical signal again and sends it to the portable terminal 1. The portable terminal 1 receives this and converts it again into an electric signal, which is processed by a computer or the like. Perform

FIG. 2 shows an internal configuration of the portable terminal 1, and FIG.
Is a CPU, 12 is a ROM, 13 is a RAM, 14 is an interface, and 15 is a power supply. The CPU 11 performs various calculations based on the data stored in the ROM 12 and the RAM 13. The liquid crystal display unit 3 displays input and output, and the key operation unit 4 is used to input necessary information from ten keys and function keys. The interface 14 enables communication with a personal computer or the like connected through the connector 5. These units are driven by the supply of power from the power supply 15.

Next, the barcode reader 6 will be described with reference to FIG. Reading unit 8 of bar code reader 6
Is composed of a reading light emitting unit 81 and a reading light receiving unit 82. The entire device is driven by a battery 31. When the switch 32 is turned on, power Vcc is supplied to each unit. The reading light emitting unit 81 irradiates the bar code 10 by controlling an internal light emitting element. When the bar code reading section 6 is moved relative to the bar code label 9, an optical signal proportional to the density of the bar code 10 is received by the reading light receiving section 32. The reading light receiving unit 82
The received light signal is converted into an electric signal 33 by an internal light receiving element. The electric signal 33 is converted into an optical signal 34 again by the transfer light emitting unit 7 and transferred to the transfer light receiving unit 2 of the portable terminal 1.

Next, the transfer light emitting section 7 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 35 denotes a circuit for detecting the rise of the input electric signal 33; 36, a circuit for generating and outputting a pulse A as a first pulse having a predetermined width from the detected rise signal; A circuit for detecting the fall of the electric signal 33, and a pulse A from the detected fall signal
A circuit for generating and outputting a pulse B as a second pulse having a larger width, a circuit 39 for synthesizing the outputs from the pulse A output circuit 36 and the pulse B output circuit 38, and a circuit 40 for synthesizing the synthesized electric signal This is a circuit that converts the signal into a transfer optical signal 34 and outputs the signal.

Next, the operation of the rise and fall detection circuits 35 and 37 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the input electric signal
33 and the signal obtained by inverting the signal with the NOT circuit 35a are converted to the next positive signal.
The AND circuit 35b calculates the logical product and outputs OUT1 to detect the rise. Next, the input electric signal 33 and a signal obtained by inverting the electric signal 33 by the NOT circuit 37a are ANDed by the next negative signal AND circuit 37b, and OUT2 is output to detect a fall. In this case, OUT1 is output at the rising timing of t1, and OUT2 is output at the falling timing of t2. These outputs are respectively input to a pulse A output circuit 36 and a pulse B output circuit 38 shown in FIG. 4 to output a pulse A and a pulse B having a predetermined width, respectively. These pulse A and B output circuits 36 and 38 are constituted by a one-shot multi-circuit. These pulses A and B are used in the following synthesis circuit.
By controlling the internal light emitting elements in the light emitting circuit 40, a transfer optical signal 34 composed of pulses A 'and B' having a similar pulse width is generated and output.

FIG. 6 shows the waveform of the transfer optical signal 34 in this embodiment. That is, the pulse A generated by the rise of the electric signal 33 when the bar code changes from black to white, and the pulse B generated by the fall of the electric signal 33 when the bar code changes from white to black
Has twice the width of pulse A. The same applies to the widths of the pulses A 'and B' of the transfer optical signal 34. Although the ratio of the pulse width is 1: 2 in this embodiment,
Select the optimal value according to the barcode to be transferred. Further, the pulse A and the pulse B may be distinguished by another method without depending on the pulse width.

Next, the processing of the portable terminal 1 that receives the transfer optical signal 34 will be described. The transfer light receiving unit 2 of the portable terminal 1
As shown in FIG. 7, a light receiving amplifier 21, a pulse A detection circuit 22 for detecting a first pulse, a pulse B detection circuit 23 for detecting a second pulse, a reference clock 24, and an SR flip-flop circuit 25 are provided. ing. The transfer light signal 34 is converted by the light receiving amplifier 21 into an electric signal 26 having pulses A and B corresponding to the light pulses A 'and B', and the pulses A and B of the electric signal 26 are converted into pulse A and B detection circuits, respectively. Detected at 22, 23.

As shown in FIG. 8, the pulse A and B detection circuits 22 and 23 are a circuit 41 for detecting the rise of the input electric signal 26 having the pulses A and B, a quinary counter 42, and an inverted output of the input electric signal 26. The AND circuit 47 for calculating the logical product of the NOT circuit 45 for obtaining the output 44 of the quinary counter 42 and the output 46 of the NOT circuit 45 and the logical product of the output 44 of the quinary counter 42 and the input electric signal 26 And an AND circuit 48 for taking out.

Next, the operation of the transfer light receiving section 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The pulses A and B of the input electric signal 26 converted by the light receiving amplifier 21 are constantly monitored by the rising detection circuit 41, and the rising signal 43 of the pulse A
Is detected, the quinary counter 42 outputs a count signal 44 at the fifth pulse of the reference clock 24. Quinary counter 42
Are selected so that pulse A has less than 5 pulses and pulse B has more than 5 pulses. Therefore, in the case of pulse A, when five pulses are counted, the input electric signal 26 is transmitted to the NOT circuit 45.
Since the output 46 inverted by “1” is “1”, the signals 44 and 46
The output 27 can be obtained by taking the logical product of AND with the AND circuit 47. In the case of pulse B, the input electrical signal 26 is still "1" when 5 pulses have been counted, so that the output 28 is obtained by ANDing the signal 44 and the signal 26 with the AND circuit 48. be able to. Then, by inputting the outputs 27 and 28 to the SR flip-flop circuit 25, an electric signal 29 having the same characteristics as the electric signal 33 obtained by reading the original bar code is obtained. This signal 29 is processed by the CPU 11 shown in FIG. 2, and the contents of the barcode are analyzed.

In the above embodiment, since the barcode signal is transferred as a change light signal of only the black and white change portion, an increase in power consumption can be prevented even if the width of the barcode becomes large or small. The effect of reducing the power consumption will be specifically described below.

Now the barcode width is 0.3mm per line and the number of transmissions is 1
00, power supply voltage 5V, light emitting element current 500mA, operation speed 500mm / s, pulse A width 50μs, pulse B width 100
Assuming μs, the conventional transfer power without processing as in the present invention can be calculated as follows.

On the other hand, in the case of the above embodiment, it is as follows.

5V × 500mA × (50 + 100) μs × 100 lines = 37.5mWs The power consumption ratio between the two is 37.5mWs / 150mWs = 0.25, and the power consumption can be reduced to one-fourth of the conventional power consumption. Recently, large barcodes such as corrugated cardboard have been used, so that the effect of reducing power consumption has a particularly advantageous result. Further, a decrease in power consumption leads to an increase in operation time, or the weight of the device can be reduced by using a small battery.

Effect of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, in a barcode signal transfer device, a first pulse is output from a barcode signal obtained by reading by a barcode reader at a rising edge of a barcode from black to white. A first pulse generating means for generating a second pulse different from the first pulse at a falling edge of the bar code from white to black, and a first pulse generating means for generating the second pulse. Combination means for combining and outputting pulses is provided to transfer the black and white change signal.When transferring the bar code signal, the bar code data is transferred only by transferring the pulse signal indicating the black and white change. And the power consumption required for signal transfer and processing can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an optical coupling terminal device showing an entire configuration of one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram showing an internal configuration of a portable terminal in one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram showing an internal configuration of a bar code reader according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a transfer light emitting unit in the bar code reader, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a detection circuit, FIG. 6 is a waveform diagram of a bar code signal in the device, FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a transfer light receiving unit in the portable terminal, and FIG. , B detection circuit, and FIG. 9 is a signal waveform diagram in the transfer light receiving section. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Portable terminal 2, 2 ... Transfer light receiving part, 3 ... Liquid crystal display part, 4 ... Key operation part, 5 ... Connector, 6 ... Barcode reader, 7 ... Transfer light emitting part, 8 ... Reading part, 9 ... Barcode label, 10 ... Barcode, 33 ...
... bar code electrical signal, 34 ... bar code transfer optical signal.

Continuation of front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06K 7/00

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A bar code reader, and a terminal for receiving and processing a signal output from the bar code reader, wherein the bar code reader reads a bar code and converts the bar code into an electric signal. Means for detecting a rise corresponding to a portion of the input electric signal which changes from black to white, and detecting a fall corresponding to a portion of the bar code which changes from white to black A means for outputting a first pulse based on a detection result of the falling detection means, a means for outputting a second pulse different from the first pulse based on a detection result of the falling detection means, Synthesizing means for synthesizing a first pulse and a second pulse, and transmitting a signal including the first pulse and the second pulse to the terminal. Bar code signal transfer apparatus according to claim. 2. The terminal according to claim 1, further comprising a first pulse detecting unit, a second pulse detecting unit, and a first pulse detecting unit. Set / reset means for performing a reset operation in response to an output from the means for detecting the second pulse, wherein the bar code white data or black data is demodulated and reproduced by the operation of the set / reset means. The barcode signal transfer device according to claim 1. 3. A means for detecting a first pulse from a received bar code read signal comprises: a counting means which starts in response to the input of the first pulse and counts a predetermined number;
When the counting means counts up, the first
3. A bar code signal transfer device according to claim 2, further comprising: means for outputting a detection pulse when the pulse signal has been completed. 4. A means for detecting a second pulse from a received bar code read signal comprises: a counting means which starts in response to the input of the second pulse and counts a predetermined number;
When the counting means counts up, the second
3. A bar code signal transfer device according to claim 2, further comprising means for outputting a detection pulse when the pulse signal has not been completed.