Importance

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Abstract

A hand-held data entry device having both portable and fixed point-of-sale modes. The device includes a housing having a chassis for carrying a bar code scanner and a microprocessor-based system that stores inventory data relating to goods, and further having a removable and reversible panel for permitting a display and keyboard to be remounted in an upside-down orientation relative to the direction of scanning. In this manner, a pistol-grip handle used by the operator in the portable mode may be also used as a mount for the device in the fixed point-of-sale mode. In the fixed point of sale mode, the device is mounted thereby to a transaction device, such as a cash register, such that the scanner's beam of light is directed approximately vertically downward to scan the universal product code of goods that are passed below the scanner. Using opposing orientations of the panel, the keyboard and display may alternatively be viewed by the operator in each of the portable mode, when the operator scans away from his or her person, and the fixed point-of-sale mode, when the scanner is inverted to scan vertically downward. Preferably, the scanner is operator-actuated by a trigger on the pistol-grip when the device is used in employed in the portable mode, and in an object-sense mode when the device is employed in the fixed point-of-sale mode.

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First Claim