Granted Patent B2

US 12,657,416 · App. 18/906,890 · Granted Jun 16, 2026

Inventors: Pascal Schüler (Waldkirch, DE); Steffen Zopf (Waldkirch, DE)

Assignee: SICK AG

G06K7/1443G06V30/424G06K7/1413

Abstract

Claims (49)

1 . An optoelectronic code reader for reading optical codes, comprising:

at least one light reception element for generating image data from received light; and

a control and evaluation unit that is configured to:

segment the image data to locate regions of interest having assumed optical codes;

process the regions of interest by a decoding process to read code content of an optical code in the region of interest;

recognize a label in the image data; and

distinguish between ones of the regions of interest which are part of the label from ones of the regions of interest which are not part of the label, wherein the ones of the regions of interest which are part of the label are processed differently by the decoding process than the ones of the regions of interest which are not part of the label.

2 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 1 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to group the regions of interest by labels.

3 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 1 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to determine a score for the regions of interest on how reliable an optical code has been detected in the region of interest, and to take account of the score in the order of the processing of the regions of interest by a decoding process.

4 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 3 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to assign a higher score to regions of interest that are part of a label.

5 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 1 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to process regions of interest of a label directly after one another by a decoding process so that regions of interest of a label are worked through as a group.

6 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 1 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to recognize a label using its brightness and homogeneous texture.

7 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 1 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to recognize a label with the aid of at least one of the following criteria: dark structures, shape, size, code structures contained, orientation of the code structures within the label.

8 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 1 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit has access to at least one label template that characterizes a known label type, with a label template having a plurality of optical codes present on this label type.

9 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 8 ,

wherein the label template having a plurality of optical codes present on this label type includes the respective code type and/or position of the optical code within a label.

10 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 8 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit has access to at least one label template that has at least one logo.

11 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 8 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured for an automatic teaching in which a label template or a property of a label template is taught from detected image data.

12 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 8 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to identify a label with reference to a label template.

13 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 12 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to identify the label with the aid of at least one already decoded optical code of a region of interest of the label or of a logo.

14 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 12 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to process regions of interest in an at least partially identified label for so long by a decoding process until all the optical codes of the label have been decoded.

15 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 8 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to transfer the code content of a region of interest having one of the plurality of optical codes of the same code content to at least one further region of interest in the case that a plurality of optical codes of the same code content are present in a label in accordance with the label template.

16 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 8 ,

wherein the control and evaluation unit is configured to adapt the regions of interest of a label with the aid of a label template.

17 . A method of reading optical codes, comprising:

generating image data from received light;

segmenting the image data to locate regions of interest having assumed optical codes;

processing the regions of interest by a decoding process to read code content of an optical code in the region of interest;

recognizing a label; and

distinguishing between ones of the regions of interest which are part of the label from ones of the regions of interest which are not part of the label, wherein the ones of the regions of interest which are part of the label are processed differently by the decoding process than the ones of the regions of interest which are not part of the label.

18 . The optoelectronic code reader in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the control and evaluation unit is further configured to:

recognize a plurality of labels in the image data; and

for each of the labels, identify ones of the regions of interest which are part of the respective one of the labels.

19 . The method of reading optical codes in accordance with claim 17 , further comprising:

recognizing a plurality of labels in the image data; and

for each of the labels, identifying ones of the regions of interest which are part of the respective one of the labels.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (14)