G06K 7/10138

Methods or arrangements for sensing record carriers, {e.g. for reading patterns} by electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical sensing; by corpuscular radiation {sensing by radiation using wavelengths larger than 0.1 mm, e.g. radio-waves or microwaves the sensing being preceded by at least one preliminary step the step consisting of determining the type of record carrier, e.g. to determine if the record carrier is an RFID tag of the long or short range type, or to determine the preferred communication protocol of the RFID tag}