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Thanks for the tips. I too am actually hoping to build a single platform first. I'm thinking that Android has the most robust set of tools available, but i-Phone or even Palm might be the way to go. My plan is to try to generate a set of "similar" titles by Author and Subject, hopefully organized into three tabs (local OPAC/Library Thing/Worldcat). I'm doing this as an independent study in Library School. I'd love to compare notes if you have time. -Matt On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM, Adam Brin <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > 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 > [log in to unmask] > -- Matt Amory (917) 771-4157 [log in to unmask]