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
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