Comments on: Occipital solves another hard image processing problem on the iPhone

By: forrestshi

forrestshi — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:36:10 +0000

Yes,actually this is the most hard part I think, and maybe that is the real value RedLaser owns, correct ? Because RedLaser took use of ZXing , which is widely used for barcode decoding.

By: Jeffrey Powers

Jeffrey Powers — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:12:04 +0000

Indeed it's a very hard problem! You should consider using the RedLaser algorithm via the SDK. There's a license cost, but it will save you tons of frustration trying to solve it yourself. http://redlaser.com/SDK.aspx

By: forrestshi

forrestshi — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:38:19 +0000

I am trying to recognize bar codes using zxing with iPhone camera. The big problem is that the blurry image need a lot complicated processing to make it ready for decoding.

By: Dave Rudder

Dave Rudder — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:10:59 +0000

I had a sneaking suspicion it would be that easy. This sounds like an excellent product and really hits a pain-point for many organizations.

I have to comment that I think David Rea's idea of a video-based scanning technique sounds great, too.

By: Jud Valeski

Jud Valeski — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:58:43 +0000

I need the cor.kz wine-label iPhone picture capture catalog/price-compare/cellar-history/notes-history (all based on the label snap) app yesterday! bring it! happy to pay $30 on-time for the app, and/or a monthly ($10 or less) subscription. just give me the app.

By: jrpowers

jrpowers — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:25:31 +0000

Thanks for the ideas!

By: jrpowers

jrpowers — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:19:56 +0000

These are some great ideas. We are doing things via HTTP post behind the scenes now, and RedLaser could be plugged into some of these other scenarios you mention. As for WinMobile, it would be a 1-day port, so we'll consider it especially as we hear more about the prospects of a developer-friendly store for Windows Mobile. Blackberry, too. If any developers for those platforms approach us, we'll definitely support their efforts.

By: David Rea

David Rea — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:43:41 +0000

As more and more smartphones get adjustable focus lenses it would seem at first blush like there will be less need for Occipital. However, optical (as opposed to laser) scanning still suffers from the need to capture the image in a single shot, which means the user must inconveniently frame the barcode, as opposed to just waving the product at the scanner, or vice versa, until it registers.

My hope is that Occipital (or somebody else) will address this problem by stitching together partial images from a live video feed to make the experience with a phone more like the experience with a dedicated laser scanner.

The point Dave Rudder makes is also valid, and suggests that the scanning (or other identification) of products should be separated from the retrieval of product information once the item is recognized. The applications we have now are analogous to AOL, in which the client application and the database were tightly bound.

By: Dave Rudder

Dave Rudder — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:19:25 +0000

This can be really big, but I'm hoping Occipital changes their API scheme a little. I do a lot of business data work, usually on the order of moving data from one system to another. We get a lot of requests for barcoding. Often, they don't want to invest in dedicated barcode scanners, like those from Symbol. Either you buy a cheap scanner which uses a serial interface, and are tied down to a computer. Or, you buy one of the Windows Mobile/Windows CE based ones, and end up paying more than buying a laptop to tether a cheap one too. Much of the time, the barcoding is a minor part of the process, needed only once in a while, so the extra baggage is really unrealistic.

If we could offload the barcoding to existing mobile devices, it would save a lot of hassle. The customers already have cell phones with cameras, so there's no additional hardware to buy. Plus, they already carry their phones all the time, so you don't have to lug around extra equipment.

The problem is that iPhones are only a small part of the market. Blackberries are still more common, and you still see Palms, Windows Mobile and legacy phones. Restricting the market to just iPhones pretty much kills the usefulness of the app.

If instead/as well Occipital were to support uploading via an HTTP post, it would be a pretty easy thing to build simple web pages that any cell phone could use. It wouldn't be as slick. You'd have to take a picture, then go to the web browser and post it. But, that's not really a problem for the use cases I've seen.

Billing would have to change. Model it on the SMS gateways (clickatel for instance). $0.005/scan, purchased in blocks of 1000 scans or whatever.

The idea is to increase the usage of the app by increasing it's availability and ease of use for all developers. The iPhone is a great platform, but why limit yourself?

Oh, and you know you'll *never* sell the product or company to Motorola/Symbol without Windows Mobile support. Yeah, yeah, I hate developing for Windows Mobile, too. But, Motorola has the money and they need something like this, so you might as well target them as a potential buyer. Heck, they'd probably drop a couple hundred thousand just to keep you from competing with their bread-and-butter scanners.