I've also been doing some research into this. There are a number of
toolkits out there. zxing gets most of the way there and it has an
iPhone package as well (an app called "barcodes"). Most of them are
still in the early stages.
I've also seen:
- http://zebra.sourceforge.net/
- http://www.bruji.com/cocoa/barcode.html
- http://code.google.com/p/jjil/
JJill seems to be in the backend of a bunch of them, but i've had a
lot of trouble getting it setup. I've been taking a conceptually
different approach from Jonathan, focusing my thought on one platform
that can showcase the app as opposed to solving the problem for all
phones.
- adam
On May 8, 2009, at 7:47 AM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
I started to do a just bit of web research in this. Open source
barcode photo recognition software looks like it's _just_ starting
to become realistically available. This was the product that looked
most promissing in my web research (not sure if it's what the
Android app is using):
http://code.google.com/p/zxing/
My Umlaut software would be an _ideal_ end-point of barcode
recognition, is why I started to look into it. Umlaut is designed
specifically to meet the goal of taking a known item citation (such
as an ISBN, sure), and returning a range of library availability and
services for that item. http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Umlaut
The next step, which I haven't figured out yet, is how to get your
software to participate in MMS/SMS architecture -- in particular to
receive MMS/SMS messages in a way that's affordable to you and
convenient to your users. (It looks like some but not all cell
phones can send MMS messages to email, but not necessarily as
conveniently as sending MMS to a cell number; but I'm not sure if
there's a cheap way to have software receive MMS messages at a cell
number. The Android app of course performs all it's processing on
the Android itself, which you can do on a device-by-device basis for
devices powerful enough for that; but I too am attracted to the idea
of an MMS solution that would work on any MMS capable device, with
no need to customize per device).
I also haven't actually looked at the zxing code yet.
But I'd love to have Umlaut able to receive an MMS message, and give
the user back a concise list of library services/links. So many
interesting projects, not enough time.
Jonathan
Matt Amory wrote:
I'm interested in some advice on building an app to pickup barcode
data
through a cell phone camera and return OPAC/Library Thing/WorldCat
etc.
results to a mobile interface.
I know that Android has a UPC barcode reader linked to a shopping
app, and
I'm wondering if this can be used or repurposed, or if there's a
better
place to begin.
Thanks!
___________________________________________________________________
Adam Brin
ph: (510) 987.0636 fx: (510) 287.6123
[email protected]
