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Abstract

A bar code symbol information driven system for accessing information on the Internet. The system includes a programmed bar code symbol reader having a hand-supportable housing, and an Internet browser program operably connectable to an Internet terminal. The programmed bar code symbol reader has an optical scanning device for optically scanning a bar code symbol encoded with an Uniform Resource Locator (URL) pointing to an information resource on the Internet, and a scan data processor for producing words of digital scan data representative of the width of the bars and spaces of the code symbol. A programmable decoder module is provided within the hand-supportable housing for processing the words of digital scan data and producing symbol character data representative of the decoded bar code symbol. An ASCII code generation module is provided within the housing for generating both an ASCII-based prefix code string representative of the Internet browser program command that writes the URL to the Internet browser program, and a suffix code string representative of the Internet browser program command that executes said HTTP request on said URL. A code string synthesizer module is provided within the housing for synthesizing the prefix and suffix code strings produced from the ASCII code generator, with the URL character string from the programmable decoder module, in order to form a complete code string. A data transmission module is provided for transmitting the complete code string to the Internet Terminal for use in accessing and displaying the Internet information resource specified by the URL encoded within the decoded bar code symbol. By virtue of the present invention, it is possible to read URL-encoded bar code symbols and enter such information into conventional Internet browser programs to automatically access and display corresponding Internet information resources, without the use of special software or hardware acccessories.

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First Claim