WO2001086501A1

WO2001086501A1 - Method and system for reading a bar code

Info

Publication number: WO2001086501A1
Application number: PCT/SE2001/000944
Authority: WO
Inventors: Niklas Hanberger; Ola Carlvik
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
Priority date: 2000-05-05
Filing date: 2001-05-03
Publication date: 2001-11-15
Also published as: SE0001715D0; SE0001715L; SE522970C2; AU2001260855A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to methods and a system for linking more than one Web page service to just one bar code, depending on the identity of the bar code reader. This is basically achieved by separating the reading of the bar code from the decoding of the bar code and giving the bar code reader an identity. The computational power of the connected device is used for decoding of bar codes and for giving feedback to the user.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR READING A BAR CODE

TECHNICAL FIELD OP THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to methods for linking bar codes to corresponding Web pages or services, and more particularly to a method of associating more than one Web page or service to just one bar code, the Web page associated, depending on the identity of the user or which group the user belongs to.

The invention also relates to an arrangement for carrying out the method.

DESCRIPTION OP RELATED ART

The present invention has its origin in a service named ConnectThings™ where billions of products worldwide can be linked to their corresponding Web pages or services with a minimum of delay by associating the product bar code with a Web page or service. The barcodes are sent via Internet to a distributed database that links every product bar code to the correct Web page or service. This is described more thoroughly in the pending PCT application, WO 99/22501. The Web page or service is then displayed or activated on a device connected to the bar code reader. A customer will thus have direct access to Web information associated with a product. Just read the product bar code and services .like product information, entertainment, news or a dialogue with the producer will appear.

From WO 98/40841 is a wireless bar code scanner and a personal computer known. The bar code reader sends raw bar code data via a wireless connection to the personal computer. The bar code data is used in the personal computer to simulate data input from the keyboard of the personal computer. This data can then be used for various purposes e.g. inventory work or computing a cumulative price of various bar-coded products.

A low cost bar code reader for domestic use was produced by Panasonic and was incorporated in a remote control device for programming a video cassette recorder. Another low cost bar code reader was produced by LEGO™ for producing sound in a toy application called the LEGO™ code pilot. Symbol Technologies and Hewlett Packard, among others, produce bar code readers and scanners connected to proprietary systems for collecting bar code data. ^• Symbol Technologies also produces a stand-alone pen with built in bar code reader that is docked to a computer and together with 3Com, Symbol Technologies produces a Palm Pi.lot™- with a built in bar code reader.

These examples of bar code readers all have the disadvantage of being either proprietary or too expensive.

To make the ConnectThings™ service a widespread and useful technique there is a . need for an inexpensive bar code reader allowing flexible use of the system.

SUMMARY OP THE INVENTION

The present invention therefore provides a solution to the problem of achieving a bar code reader, which is flexible and inexpensive and suitable for the ConnectThings™ service.

One object of the invention is to be able to associate several Web pages or services to just one bar code..

Another object is to be able to communicate securely between the bar code reader and the ConnectThings™ distributed database and associated Web pages and services.

The above mentioned objects are basically achieved by separating the reading of the bar code from the decoding of the bar code and giving the bar code reader an identity associated with a client software program in a connected device where the decoding takes place. The bar code reader thus presents raw bar code data to the connected device and the bar code is decoded using the computational power of the connected device .

In a first embodiment of the invention the identity of bar code readers is used to give a group of users, or a single user, access to various information depending on their access rights by associating the identity of the bar code reader to the client software.

In a second embodiment the fact that the bar code reader is connected to client software and that the identity of ^• the bar code reader is known is used to store in the client software extra data that the user has entered. This data can be transmitted together with bar code data to another system and can e.g. be user preferences or other details that the user wants to associate with the bar code data. For example shopping systems can use entered address data for billing purposes .

The embodiments of the invention are preferably implemented by software code segments stored in the client program in the device connected to the bar code reader. The connected device can e.g. be a set top box, a television set, a game console, a mobile telephone, a lap top, a Palm Pilot™ or an ordinary personal computer.

By adopting the proposed solution the resulting bar code reader system becomes more generic and flexible and greatly simplified compared to current systems.

Although the invention has been summarised above the method and arrangement according to the appended independent claims 1, 17 and 18 define the scope of the protection sought, with various embodiments described in the dependent claims .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings with like reference numerals indicating corresponding parts, and wherein:

Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the system in which the bar code reader system is used;

Figure 2 shows a schematic view of a bar code reader according to the invention; Figure 3 shows a signal from the bar code reader head; and Figure 4 shows a simple raw data transfer protocol.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Figure 1 shows a schematic view of the system 100 in which the bar code readers 110 should be applied. The bar code reader 110 is connected, e.g. via cable, via IR (Infra red) or via Bluetooth (TM) to a device₇ e.g. a computer, a set top box, a game console, a laptop, a mobile telephone, a television set or a Palm Pilot™ containing client software 120. The client software 120 is used to access the ConnectThings™ distributed database 130 via the Internet, with the read bar code as input data, which is linked in the database 130 to the correct Web page or service 140- 150. The Web page or service 140-150 is then displayed or activated on the connected device.

The possibility to link more than one Web page or service to one product bar code would increase the value of the service tremendously. Assume for example that the user selects services that are based on their roles or responsibility, e.g. a service technician wants to see the service manual but an end user wants to see the user's manual, reading the same bar code. Another example is that doctors would benefit from accessing sensitive information reading from the same bar code as patients.

This implies that it must be possible to inform or prove ones identity to the client software or the bar code reader to be able to access secret- or sensitive information or tailored information for a special group of people. There are several possibilities of associating an identity to the bar code reader or the client software.

Starting with the bar code reader an identity may be obtained by reading a bar code attached to an information bearer such as a credit card or an identity card and on the connected device or the bar code reader itself enter an associated PIN (Personal Identification Number)- code or a fingerprint. In this way any bar code reader can be used and only temporarily, during a reading session, be associated with a certain identity, or group of users .

The bar code reader can also have a hardwired identification code such as a serial number to identify the reader. This serial number can in turn be associated with a Certificate in the client software to provide very high security in the communication between the client software and the Web pages or services _ linked to from the ConnectThings™ database. As known, certificates can be valid for a single service or for a group of services . This provides the possibility to give for example doctors access based on their certificate to a group of different information services from different producers which patients cannot access .

These different ways of associating an identity to the bar code reader provides the possibility to associate more than one Web page or service to just one bar code depending on the identity of the user since it is possible to determine either the identity of the person reading the bar code or what group of people the person reading the bar code belongs to . In a second embodiment of the invention the fact that the bar code reader is connected to client software and that the identity of the bar code reader is known is used to store extra data in the client software entered by the user. This data can be transmitted together with bar code data to another system and can e.g. be user preferences, i.e. integrity data, address information or other details that the user wants to associate with the bar code data. For example shopping systems can use entered address information for billing purposes. -

Figure 2 shows a schematic view of a bar code reader according to the invention. The bar code reader consists of a reader head 200 comprising a light or infrared emitting diode and a photo diode connected by two cavities . The light or infrared diode transmits electromagnetic waves through one of the cavities, towards .the bar code through a lens, the transmitted wave reflects on the bar code through a similar cavity to the photo diode. The photo diode measures the intensity of the received signal. If the intensity is low the bar is black since black reflects less than white, and if the intensity is high it is a space. The output from the photo diode is thus a square wave 210, see also figure 3. The square wave 210 is sampled 220 and connected to an analog-to-digital converter 230 producing digital values representing the colour and length of • the bars of the bar code. This digital value is then subject to a simple signing/encryption 240 where an arbitrary value is either added to or subtracted from the original value received from the analog-to-digital converter. After the signing a simple encryption takes place. The signing/encryption 240 of the data stream from the bar code reader ensures that an authorised bar code reader does the reading. The stream of signed/encrypted values is then transmitted 250 to the device connected to the bar code reader for decoding of the bar code.

Figure 4 shows an example of a simple transmission protocol from the bar code reader to the connected device. If, for example, the information is transmitted using two bytes, one bit determines whether the bar code symbol was black or white and the remaining 15 bits determine the length of the read bar code symbol. The data is presented asynchronously to the connected device so that the device only receives data when something is read with the bar code reader and thus, the device isn't loaded with reading data when the reader isn't reading anything.

The transmission from the bar code reader to the connected device can be either through a cable connected to for example an RS232 interface of a computer or wireless using e.g. Bluetooth™ or IR (infra red) -transmission. Bluetooth™ is a universal radio interface in the 2.45 GHz frequency band that enables electronic devices to connect and communicate wirelessly via short-range, ad hoc networks. Each Bluetooth™ unit can communicate with up to seven other units per piconet. A piconet is a collection of devices connected via Bluetooth™ in an ad hoc fashion. A piconet starts with two connected devices, such as a portable computer and a cellular telephone, and may grow up to eight connected devices. All Bluetooth™ devices are peer units and have identical implementations. However, when establishing a piconet, one unit will act as a master and the other (s) as a slave (s) for the duration of the piconet connection. Thus, Bluetooth™ is suitable for connecting the bar code reader with the device connected to the reader hosting the client software. The device can e.g. be, as mentioned above, a computer, a television set, a laptop, a mobile telephone, a set-top box a Palm Pilot™ or a game console.

Now the basic features of the inexpensive bar code reader have been described. The most important feature being the association of the bar code reader with client software in a connected device and the possibility to associate an identity to the bar code reader.

The larger computational power available in the connected device facilitates new possibilities to adapt the bar code reader to external circumstances. When software in the connected device, for example, detects that readings from the bar code reader is either too high or too low, perhaps because of abnormal or changing background lighting the software can give feedback to the reading head of the reading device that the sensitivity should be adjusted. If for example the readings are constantly good the client software can order the bar code reader to lower the intensity of the reader head to save power.

The computational power of the connected device can also be used to give the user extensive feedback on how the he handles the bar code reader. Feedback can be given either on a screen belonging to the connected device or by audio in e.g. a connected mobile telephone. The connected device can for example inform the user that he is moving the bar code reader with the wrong speed, or that the bar code reader wasn't positioned at the beginning of the bar code when the reading started. The speed can be calculated in several ways, e.g. by noticing the rate of change between black and white readings. This information helps the user to handle the bar code reader in a correct manner, making the readings more reliable and thus making it possible to use a less expensive reading head.

A further possibility is that the- client software can give feedback to the user during the reading in progress. For example can a sound be played for every black bar in the bar code so that the user can hear that the bar code reader is reading and if the sound is to infrequent the user understands that the background lighting might be incorrect or that the angle of the bar code reader head is incorrect. The user can then correct this during the reading. The client software in the connected device can also interrupt the user as soon as something is wrong, for example if the user starts a reading in the middle of a bar code. This can be detected because every bar code contains beginning, middle and end indicators.

Yet another possibility is that if a valid bar code isn't found in the data stream from the bar code reader the connected device can use several consecutive readings^' of the same bar code and patch together a valid bar code from those readings. The client software in the connected device can also store in a cache memory the last hundred or so valid readings and compare a new not complete reading with the content of the cache memory. If the incomplete reading matches a large part of a recent reading the system can infer that, that reading is the correct bar code.

In the above we have only discussed bar code readers and the reading of bar codes. It is however, as. a skilled person will notice, possible to use the inventive idea even when reading other types of data patterns such as, e.g. magnetic strips or Braille code, of course using an appropriate reader.

The invention being thus described it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways . Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to a person skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A method for linking a bar code with a Web page, by reading the bar code with a bar code reader and transmitting raw bar code data from the barcode reader to a device connected to the bar code reader, decoding the bar code data using client software residing in the connected device, the method characterised by associating an identity to the bar code reader; monitoring the reading of the bar code in the client software; giving feedback to the user during the reading of the bar code; accessing through the client software a distributed database via the Internet using the decoded bar code data and said identity associated with the bar code reader as input to the distributed database; linking in the distributed database different Web pages to the same bar code data, the web page linked to, depending on the identity associated with the bar code reader; and displaying the Web page corresponding to the read bar code on the connected device.

2. The method according to claim 1, further characterised in that the feedback given to the user concerns speed, position or angle of the bar code reader in relation to the bar code.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, further characterised by storing in the client software additional information associated with the user; and transmitting said additional information together with the bar code data and the bar code reader identity to the distributed database.

4. The method of claim 3, further characterised by using said additional information as input to the Web page said bar code data links to.

5. The method of any of the preceding claims, further characterised in that said associating of an identity to the bar code reader is done by reading a bar code attached to an information bearer; and entering a PIN code or a fingerprint associated to said information bearer.

6. The method of any of claims 1-4 further, characterised in that said associating of an identity to the bar code reader is done by associating in the client software a Certificate to a hardwired identity code in the bar code reader.

7. The method of any of the preceding claims, further characterised by patching together in the client software several consecutive readings of bar code data if the decoded bar code data received didn't represent a valid bar code.

8. The method of any of the preceding claims, further characterised by storing in a cache memory a large number of the latest readings from the bar code reader; comparing an incomplete stream of bar code data with the content of the cache memory; and choosing the closest match in the cache memory as representing the correct bar code.

9. A system for linking a bar code with a Web page by reading the bar code with a bar code reader and transmitting raw bar code data from the bar code reader to a device connected to the bar code reader, decoding the bar code data using client software residing in the connected device, the system characterised by means for associating an identity to the bar code reader; means for monitoring the reading of the bar code in the client software; means for giving feedback to the user during the reading of the bar code; means for accessing through the client software a distributed database via the Internet using the decode bar code data and the identity associated with the bar code reader as input to the distributed database; means for linking in the distributed database different Web pages to the same bar code data said linking of different Web pages depending on the identity associated with the bar code reader; and means for displaying the Web page corresponding to the read bar code on the connected device.

10. The system according to claim 9, further characterised by means for monitoring the reading concerning speed, position or angle of the bar code reader in relation to the bar code.

11. The system according to claim 9, further characterised by means for storing in the client software additional information associated with the user; and means for transmitting said additional information together with the bar code data and the bar code reader identity to the distributed database.

12. The system of claim 11, further characterised by means for using said additional information as input to the Web page said bar code data links to.

13. The system of any of claims 9-12, further characterised in that said means for associating of an identity to the bar code reader is characterised by means for reading a bar code attached to an information bearer; and means for entering a PIN code or a fingerprint associated to said information bearer.

14. The system of any of claims 9-12, further characterised in that said means for associating of an identity to the bar code reader is characterised by means for associating in the client software a Certificate to a hardwired identity code in the bar code reader.

15. The system of any of claims 9-14, further characterised by means for patching together in the client software several consecutive readings of bar code data if the decoded bar code data received didn't represent a valid bar code.

16. The method of any of claims 9-15, further characterised by means for storing in a cache memory a large number of the latest readings from the bar code reader; means for comparing an incomplete stream of bar code data with the content of the cache memory; and means for choosing the closest match in the cache memory as representing the correct bar code.

17. A bar code reader for use in a system according to any of claims 9-16.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium, having thereon: computer program code segments for performing the method of any of claims 1-8 when said program is run on a connected device.