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!
>>

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Adam Brin
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