Importance

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Abstract

A voltage signal is generated in proportion to the speed of travel of a document travelling through a read station of a document handling machine. The voltage signal is converted to a digital signal having a pulse frequency proportional to the speed of the document. The pulses are counted as an indication of the number of print lines that are passing by the read station. The count is then compared to a pre-selected value approximating the number of print lines typically separating an indicia field of similar documents from a leading edge thereof. When the counted and pre-selected numbers are equal, a reading probe seeks a gate mark within a predetermined number of subsequent print lines. Once the gate mark is located, a variable number of consecutive print line positions comprising the indicia are read.

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First Claim