Bennett H Pardee

57917710, Aug 11, 1998

Dec 19, 1995

8/574956

Johannes A. S. Bjorner - Woodbury CT
Bennett Pardee - Redding CT
Mark B. Braginsky - Longmeadow MA

United Parcel Service of America, Inc. - Atlanta GA

F21V 700

362297

An unsymmetrical elliptical reflector for spatial illumination. The invention includes a novel reflector and a novel illumination system including the novel reflector. The novel reflector includes first and second, non-symmetrical, elliptical elongate reflector surfaces. The eccentricities of the first and second reflector surfaces are different such that they have common first foci and different conjugate foci. The novel illumination system incorporates the novel reflector and provides intense, focused illumination at two foci positioned at two heights above a conveyor surface. The illumination intensity between the two foci is sufficiently intense to provide adequate illumination of encoded labels carried on package surfaces at heights between the two foci.

59230177, Jul 13, 1999

Jan 23, 1997

8/788852

Johnannes A. S. Bjorner - Woodbury CT
Bennett Pardee - Redding CT
Catherine Alexander - Danbury CT

United Parcel Service of America - Danbury CT

G06K 710
G06F 1760

235385

A moving-light indicia reader system including a conveyor 12 carrying parcel 14 bearing a destination address 20. A moving-light illumination source 24 defines a spot 30 that moves at the same speed as the conveyor 12 to assist the positioning of the parcel 14 on the conveyor 12. A scanner 36 and a computer memory 42 of a character recognition system 40 are operated so as to store an image of a region 50 defined-with respect to the moving spot 30 defined by the moving-light illumination source 24. A sensor assembly 32, including a height sensor and reflectivity sensor, is located toward the downstream end of the moving-light illumination source 24. The scanner 32 is focused in response to height data from the height sensor, and the gain of the scanner 32 is adjusted in response to reflectivity data from the reflectivity sensor, so that the scanner 32 generates a clear image of the top of the parcel 14 at the location of the spot 30 as the parcel 14 passes beneath the scanner 32. A multi-conveyor indicia reader system 100 includes a plurality of moving-light indicia reader systems 10a through 10n that are operated so as to time division multiplex the storage of the images generated by the several moving-light indicia reader systems.