Barcode scanning on iFone

I was chatting with Sven the other day about how nice it'd be to have a simple barcode reader that talks to a desktop machine. Basically, he just wants a "keyboard" that takes barcodes as input and "types" them as output over USB/bluetoof/whatever.

I looked at a bunch of apps and about half of them only read QR codes, or if they do read "1-D" codes, they only recognize valid UPC codes, not the barcodes on tapes.  Also, it seems like the best way to scan is to make a "scanning stage" where your phone is stationary and you just put tapes in front of it. Autofocus seems to try to lock-on to the background, missing a tape that you're holding in your hand.

I found these:

ZBar : Open source! Captures barcodes very quickly. Unfortunately no "batch" scan mode, you have to click the Camera icon after each scan to return it to scanning mode. You can capture a whole bunch of codes, that it stores in RAM, and then email the whole list to yourself. Very nice, and could be haX0red into a custom application if we had a C++ dev.

iCody: Eight bucks, but well worth it! Lets you crop your camera input down to just a section, so no auto-focus garbage, nor problems when multiple codes are in the view. Captures a whole batch into RAM, and then lets you send those in email. Also, I didn't try it, but it's got a desktop applet that you can run, and if iFone and Mac are on the same wifi, it'll send codes directly to your Mac -- if it works, that's a winner. :)

And the ones I tried that donut work for scanning our backup tapes:
RedLaser: Won't recognize tapes, only takes 1-D barcodes that are UPCs. (It's a shame, since they have a nice SDK.)
ScanLite: only does QR codes. (It's a shame, as they have a web API that lets you write your own webapps that use the iFone app as input.)
codeREADr: only does QR.
i-nigma 4: only does QR, despite suggesting otherwise in the description...
BeeTagg : only does QR

So there you have it, that's what I gleaned in a couple hours over the weekend.  Share and enjoy!

Android on my iPhone 3G

Well, here it is, my old iPhone 3G is running droid. I tried the "simple" bootlace method, but ended up diving in deeper than expected. I had to go with the dev team pwnage tool on my Mac to get jailbroken in the first place, then connected to a linux machine to do the actual boot loader install, and then bootlace got the iDroid bits installed so the boot loader could see 'em. But it works!

Kite Aerial Camera -- Ready to Fly!

Here it is, the kite aerial photography camera is ready to go. I've got two relays wired to two different digital out ports on the Arduino. Those relays short out the "mode" button and the shutter button on the cheap-o digital camera.

All the Arduino's doing is powering up and waiting ten minutes -- then it presses the "Mode" button once, waits three seconds, and then starts pressing the shutter button every few seconds.  We tested by hooking it all up and letting it run in the livingroom.  It works!

On the day of our first flight, I'll take a laptop, so we can change the timing if we need it -- and also so we can offload the images between runs.  This should be fun.

Rewired the Cheap-o Camera

Okay, so we soldered some solid jumper wire onto the posts of the two switches on the Aries Digital Keychain Camera (3-in-1!). You have to press the Mode button on the front to power it on, and then press the shutter button to take a picture. So you short the Mode switch and it goes "beep" to tell you it powered on, and then you short the shutter button and it beeps as it takes a picture. So with those wires run to a solderless breadboard, and my relays and transistors at the ready, the next step is to get arduino to press the buttons for me.