Hey there, just wanted to share the Android application I just finished developing for the Challenge.

http://www.jsharkey.org/blog/2008/04/14/android-scan/

Scan is an Android application that finds pricing and metadata for anything with a barcode. Check out the 3-minute video showing it in action with real barcodes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwhdXJuiO48

Nice Job!
And really close to my application

it is so beautiful that I made a very very similar app but for current consommation product as Coca Can or Ketchup bottle

the competition will be very hard with all the applications using barcode

Let's put all together. I have electronics

funny , i spent some time working on this kind of application.
willing to build a database on price base a social application.
then we thought people buying fancy new 600$ phones will not likely be the one trying to save every penny while shoping.

By the way , did you manage to handle the bluriness of the photos taken by the Camera ?
I worked wit pictures from 3 mobiles and in normal use (kick point and click) no macro mode .. the picture where very blury and Xing could not read them ?

Regards

Well see Chris,

My application IsiOne - Your Shopping Companion, allows user to enter the number if the mobile doesn't not have a camera which a I don't see in yours jsharkey

But I think our best ennemy will be OpenIntents Shopping Cart and
OpWoKo

then we thought people buying fancy new 600$ phones will not likely be the one trying to save every penny while shoping.

I agree that saving pennies on something is trivial, but the key feature is quickly getting a feel for prices available across the web. If it's $10 cheaper online, it might change their decision. If it's roughly the same price online, they can feel more confident in buying the physical item they are looking at.

By the way , did you manage to handle the bluriness of the photos taken by the Camera ?

At first I used a cheap Logitech QuickCam, but was having trouble getting it to recognize barcodes. It was mostly due to image blurring in low-light. Instead, I hacked together a way to use a firewire MiniDV camcorder, which resulted in much clearer images. I documented this hack for anyone interested near the bottom of this page:

http://scan.jsharkey.org/

The cameras coming out on the actual Android hardware are probably going to be high-quality compared to other current cellphone cameras.

Your Shopping Companion, allows user to enter the number if the mobile doesn't not have a camera which a I don't see in yours jsharkey

That's true, I forgot about that. But to be honest, I doubt people will want to enter UPC codes manually. If anything, they might want to do a keyword search.

Scan was just covered over at AndroidGuys, where I was interviewed as part of their Developer Spotlight Series:

http://androidguys.com/2008/04/17/devel ... -series-8/

The interview talks a little more in depth about Scan and its target audience.

Scan was recently selected as one of the 50 winners of the Android Developer Challenge.

http://www.jsharkey.org/blog/2008/05/10 ... challenge/

jsharkey wrote:Scan was recently selected as one of the 50 winners of the Android Developer Challenge.

http://www.jsharkey.org/blog/2008/05/10 ... challenge/

Congratulations

Nice to see anddev.org members in the Top 50

Regards,
plusminus

I wonder how do you do the cross referencing of UPC to product. Is there an API to access a public database with that information?

I am finishing up a simple calorie counter application (http://www.fitandroid.com). Reading barcodes would simplify the acquisition of nutritional facts.

I thought phones reading bar codes was a good idea, but I was thinking about using a red laser scanner (not practical). I never even though about using the embedded camera. This is a really cool tool !