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I imagine a future evolution of this could be embedding it on a raspi with a USB barcode scanner, and putting a control screen in your pantry.
You can read barcodes with your phone camera. No additional hardware required.
I love the idea of this, but in reality I can’t imagine the time and energy required to scan and keep everything up-to-date is offset by the benefits. Perhaps a current user can prove me wrong?
I've always liked the idea of this sort of thing, but the benefits of using something like this almost never outweigh the costs as compared to just eyeballing the pantry and winging the meal planning on short timescales. The system starts to become the point of the effort rather than just a tool to better achieve household goals.
Unless you're dealing with a substantial household or some sort of communal living environment (lots of roommates, half-way house, dorm) or doing a lot of entertaining, the benefits vs. the effort just leave these things as interesting experiments.
And I do see value in experimenting this way. I am an implementation consultant for actual ERP systems and data entry compliance is a real problem in the corporate world, too. There tends to be benefits to the data entry problem there, but the benefits tend to accrue a few degrees of separation from where the entry work takes place... so those that do the work often don't understand the need or importance. So if you solve some of the data capture problem in a small, low risk household environment, you may be able to apply the lessons learned to larger business systems. For example the more you could capture the data "in flight", like cameras capturing the information as you're putting recently bought groceries away or pulling them out to cook, do that well enough and now the benefits start to be larger in the home... but maybe you can see avenues to reduce the data entry burden in the warehouse, or the data entry processing desks, etc.
But on it's own, using the same old data acquisition patterns as boring old corporate ERP, you're better bet is probably just pen and paper.
Very cool. What information is automatically imported to your list when scanning a barcode? Is it just the name of the product?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can read barcodes with your phone camera. No additional hardware required.
Specialized hardware reads barcodes faster and more accurately which really makes a difference when you using them a lot
Just imagining the frustration of trying to perfectly angle your camera to scan a can of beans in your dark cupboard makes me want to toss my phone against a wall.
I love the idea of this, but in reality I can’t imagine the time and energy required to scan and keep everything up-to-date is offset by the benefits. Perhaps a current user can prove me wrong?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Specialized hardware reads barcodes faster and more accurately which really makes a difference when you using them a lot
In addition, lasers scan extremely well in low light conditions due to the intense light a laser outputs which illuminates the barcode so the sensor can read it, even in the dark. Just imagining the frustration of trying to perfectly angle your camera to scan a can of beans in your dark cupboard makes me want to toss my phone against a wall.