RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning • Hacker News Board

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#21

Post by ErrantX » Fri, Nov 06, 2009, 7:15 PM UTC

davepeck wrote: post #6

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the iPhone didn't support those kind of barcodes due to physics based limitations of the camera/lens. If they're doing something really clever to read these barcodes it makes some sense to not just give it away. The Apache licence does give them that option.

All iPhones have good enough optics to detect 2D barcodes like QR Code. Linear barcodes like UPC were trickier until the iPhone 3GS, which has variable focus camera hardware that also admits direct access to camera frames. On the 3GS, barcode scanning is a cake walk. There are many surprising things about RedLaser's success, but technology isn't one of them. I agree with OP that apparent violations of licensing (acce…

Why scan a UPC code when you can just take a picture of the cover of a book and have the product found just as fast

Surely the error rate of that compared to bar codes is much higher. For common products Im sure it works just as well but bar code scanning doesn't degrade for edge cases in the same way.

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#22

Post by bmalicoat » Fri, Nov 06, 2009, 7:44 PM UTC

hapless wrote: post #12

Their marketing material reminds me of CueCat. Yup. Barcodes are the future. Any day now. "Query into a sea of information." http://www.redlaser.com/Next.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuecat

Ha, I had and loved 2 CueCats. If nothing else it was great to get free scanning hardware. Some cool projects were done with them at the time.

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#23

Post by jakep36 » Fri, Nov 06, 2009, 9:55 PM UTC

jamesbressi wrote: post #4

Very interesting to note that as the popularity of these types of apps rise, so will brick-and-mortar retailers awareness and deterrent of them. How? Many retailers do not allow pictures to be taken in their stores, something that is very loosely enforced, but is enforced nonetheless. One time I needed to take a pic of the description of a product in Home Depot so I wouldn't forget. Told the associate that and he sai…

I doubt that I would continue shopping at a store if they kicked me out for taking a picture of the barcode on a product.

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#24

Post by jeffpowers » Fri, Nov 06, 2009, 10:15 PM UTC

dazzawazza wrote: post #2

Interesting that it uses the zxing library [1] which doesn't support EAN/UPC yet (on iPhone) and they have written EAN/UPC scanning and haven't been kind enough to donate the code back to zxing. I guess that would remove their developer license revenue stream [2]. I assume they use Amazon to get EAN->item mapping which is against the amazon TOS. If they don't I love to know what they do use. [1] - http://code.google.…

Actually ZXing is a very very small part of RedLaser. We are thinking about kicking back our C++ port to the community!

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#25

Post by crux_ » Fri, Nov 06, 2009, 10:25 PM UTC

Free app idea that I don't have the time to write... coupon-o-matic.

1) scan coupon barcodes, ideally using video (1-2 seconds per full page of coupons in one of those mailers?), beeping only for those you ought to keep based on what you buy and/or how good of a coupon it is.

2) automatically generate shopping list, based on coupons + what you normally buy.

3) Profit! (Well, less cost; potentially much less cost, given how many coupons there are out there, doubling, store coupons matching mfg ones, etc.)

3a) Optional: scan product barcodes as you're shopping, automatically crossing them off the list, indicating the coupon savings you should get, and also reordering the list based on what grocery department you're in...

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#26

Post by davepeck » Fri, Nov 06, 2009, 11:41 PM UTC

ErrantX wrote: post #21

davepeck wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All iPhones have good enough optics to detect 2D barcodes like QR Code. Linear barcodes like UPC were trickier until the iPhone 3GS, which has variable focus camera hardware that also admits direct access to camera frames. On the 3GS, barcode scanning is a cake walk. There are many surprising things about RedLaser's success, but technology isn't one of them. I agree with OP that apparent violations of licensing (acce…

Why scan a UPC code when you can just take a picture of the cover of a book and have the product found just as fast Surely the error rate of that compared to bar codes is much higher. For common products Im sure it works just as well but bar code scanning doesn't degrade for edge cases in the same way.

You should try it. It is remarkably great, and while I can't speak to error rates I believe that it is on par or better than a good camera-based scanner. Also: using SnapTell with my decades-old textbooks in Greek religion confirms it's not just for "common" products.

(Disclosure: I have nothing whatsoever to do with SnapTell, but I have been consistently impressed with the technology.)

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#27

Post by veemjeem » Fri, Nov 06, 2009, 11:58 PM UTC

hapless wrote: post #12

Their marketing material reminds me of CueCat. Yup. Barcodes are the future. Any day now. "Query into a sea of information." http://www.redlaser.com/Next.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuecat

The main issue of the cuecat is that every time you needed to scan something, you wouldn't have your computer around to scan it. Plus the scanning on that cuecat thing was highly annoying, it didn't work on some types of packaging and it required you to put the device up close and slowly scan across it. Sometimes I felt like I could type in the UPC code faster.

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#28

Post by veemjeem » Sat, Nov 07, 2009, 12:00 AM UTC

crux_ wrote: post #25

Free app idea that I don't have the time to write... coupon-o-matic. 1) scan coupon barcodes, ideally using video (1-2 seconds per full page of coupons in one of those mailers?), beeping only for those you ought to keep based on what you buy and/or how good of a coupon it is. 2) automatically generate shopping list, based on coupons + what you normally buy. 3) Profit! (Well, less cost; potentially much less cost, giv…

It's too bad that the iphone screen doesn't scan via the laser barcode readers, otherwise it would be great to just show the coupon on screen.

Re: RedLaser ― Impossibly accurate barcode scanning

#29

Post by conquest » Sun, Nov 29, 2009, 4:01 AM UTC

davepeck wrote: post #6

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the iPhone didn't support those kind of barcodes due to physics based limitations of the camera/lens. If they're doing something really clever to read these barcodes it makes some sense to not just give it away. The Apache licence does give them that option.

All iPhones have good enough optics to detect 2D barcodes like QR Code. Linear barcodes like UPC were trickier until the iPhone 3GS, which has variable focus camera hardware that also admits direct access to camera frames. On the 3GS, barcode scanning is a cake walk. There are many surprising things about RedLaser's success, but technology isn't one of them. I agree with OP that apparent violations of licensing (acce…

Where did you confirm that these guys use amazon for their product look up? I've been wondering what they use to look up the products and get images, etc.