Edited by author 07-27-2007 07:09 AM

Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hzbCtkURgk and have a look at how to scan 1D barcodes with CamClic using a camera phone with a java software.

Info also at www.camclic.blogspot.com and www.camclic.com

Edited by author 08-02-2006 08:19 AM
It is definitely possible to read barcodes with a cellphone without changing the optics; I have done it. See http://sourceforge.net/projects/readbarc/. ReadBarC is an open source UPC barcode reader which will run on Symbian OS V6.0 cell phones. Using a Nokia 6260 and this application I can read UPC barcodes of the sort (and size) you see on cereal boxes.
The trick to dealing with the focus issue is to predict what the barcode will look like out of focus, and to compare that with the image captured. I explain how this is done on that page.
Below is a screen capture from the application, showing it reading a barcode from a magazine.

ReadBarC reading a barcode from a magazine.

The resolution is not the issue it is the focus of the lens. The Scanbuy application requires that you carry around a little magnifying glass that you stick on the back of your camera. This is not a viable idea. For a much better solution check out Nextcode www.nextcodecorp.com. they have come up with technology that works with any camera phone.

Try mailto e_r_i_x@yahoo.com ... he seems to have dropped by, and vanished!

Edited by author 09-20-2005 03:03 AM
Will scanbuy product support series60 devices.
gparthi@gmail.com

Edited by author 09-20-2005 12:03 PM
I just dropped by http://www.scanbuy.com/ and it looks good. Do they own this technology? And what's your plan for it, Eric?

This is reality now. Take a look at scanbuy.com

Actually thay sell SDK I am using now.
e_r_i_x@yahoo.com

The SMS idea came from a developer, and may be his own idea...?

The subject came up because he was talking about SMS extensions, and explaining that if the platform supported it, you could send a lot more than 160 characters. Symbian phones, he said, support this; Palm doesn't (but they say now that they're aware of the problem, they'll work to include it in the next rev of the OS) and Microsoft doesn't (and said it was none of their business, and that applications should do that, or third party providers)

The logic of it was that you can't be sure any particular phone has GPRS set up; but you can be about as sure as it is possible to be that it has SMS active.

I don't know where the sending stuff via SMS came from, our demo's either send data to a central system over GPRS or we invoke a WAP/Web session when a barcode is read. I guess you could send stuff over SMS but it is highly limiting in most situations that we are thinking of.

Simon Cavill
LogicaCMG

Edited by author 09-29-2004 12:24 PM
It's about time.

I've been wanting for a while to print favourite passwords as barcodes,so I don't have to remember them - or to type them. Long random hexadecimal strings. Lovely.

Someone in South or Central America worked on a PC webcam edition, but I think they died or something. Maybe the barcode wedge manufacturers got to them.

The SMS part of the story, I don't like. Make it emulate PC keyboard and we'll talk.

Although, texting your empty packet bar codes to Tesco for remote grocery shopping has charm.

.

Edited by author 02-11-2005 07:45 AM
Well, it turns out that it can. Even a Nokia 7650 has a good enough camera to read barcodes.

What sort of news is this, good, or bad?