Barcode Reader flatbed scanner

A

a59303

Hi,

this is my first post here, as I am a new user to FreeBSD. I like it quite a lot.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of or has any ideas about using my flatbed scanner to decode bar-codes. I've seen plenty of information about Encoding them but not reading them. It seems like it should be the same thing. Considering that I am not knowledgeable in the ways of programming I wouldn't know but it seems that if you can make a BMP to print out you should be able to scan a BMP to read.

Any suggestions/ideas/responses
would be appreciated,

thanks,

a5'
 
a59303 said:
Hi,

this is my first post here, as I am a new user to FreeBSD. I like it quite a lot.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of or has any ideas about using my flatbed scanner to decode bar-codes. I've seen plenty of information about Encoding them but not reading them. It seems like it should be the same thing. Considering that I am not knowledgeable in the ways of programming I wouldn't know but it seems that if you can make a BMP to print out you should be able to scan a BMP to read.

Any suggestions/ideas/responses
would be appreciated,

thanks,

a5'
Click to expand...

Why would you want to decode bar-code with flatbed scanners?
Those are for photography and documentation. Bar-code readers
are well supported on all BSDs and trivial to use. They are attached to kernel as keyboards. In essence reading a bar-code is like typing the product number.

Check misc.AT.openbsd archive. We have discussed last year use of bar-code readers/scanners in detail.

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&r=1&w=2
 
Why would you want to decode bar-code with flatbed scanners?
Click to expand...
Essentially because I don't want to buy a reader, and its kind of a curiosity. I will check further at your link,

Thank You

a5'
 
a59303 said:
Essentially because I don't want to buy a reader
Click to expand...
I do not think that you fully understand what bar code is nor what flat bed scanners are. Some background reading would really help you.
 
You are probably right. I will read up on the two of them, but I don't see why it matters... To me the scanner, either reader or image, is just a way to get information into the computer (which then processes the information). I did see while I was investigating before I posted that readers store the information in memory (and process the information) and then dump the info into the computer as a keyboard.

This does indicate that the are different. What I don't see is why whatever the hardware on the reader does is not mimic-able for software. I did follow the link that you provided and discovered that one of the things I suspected may well be true, that is, there is a market niche for those readers and they are not actively imitated. This message seems to indicate that.

Again, I will read up on the two,


Thanks

a5'
 
Take a look at gocr, it looks like it decodes code128, UPC/EAN, code39 (code 3 of 9). It is in ports under graphics/gocr.
Click to expand...

I'll check that out. I also found the swipe toolkit elsewhere online.

I will definitely check that out later tonight,

thanks,

a5'
 
I got gocr and its working on my computer but I have to get the xsane to work... my computer detected my canon m150 at the usb port but I think its only as a printer ( its a printer/scanner/copier). I'll have to spend some time on this but I've made a great deal of progress towards this effort.

I appreciate the help, tomorrow I will spend more time on it.


-it appears that the graphic interface uses xsane to scan a document, so that you can get it directly from the scanner. I have not found a way to scan from the command line, with gocr, or otherwise..SO, I can't find out whether gocr actually interprets bar code or if its soley for ocr. I saw mention of it on the sourceforge page but can't verify until I try.

Thanks Again mdhughes, and Oko for the responses


a5'
 
a59303 said:
-it appears that the graphic interface uses xsane to scan a document, so that you can get it directly from the scanner. I have not found a way to scan from the command line, with gocr, or otherwise..SO,
Click to expand...

man scanimage
 
Reading barcode image (solved)

OK, Thanks,

I'm going to be busy for the weekend, and I didn't think to just check a barcode from wikipedia (for example) so I'll take your word for it. When I get back to this I'll be working on the printer issue.

I think I'll mark this thread as solved.

a5'
 
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