Enterprise-grade mobile barcode scanning with Scandit and Xamarin

www.scandit.com October 15th, 2013

Christian Floerkemeier PhD, CTO & Co-Founderchristian@scandit.com

@scandit

Scandit SDK

Barcode Scanning Component For Xamarin

2

INTRODUCTION

Source: http://www.intermec.com

Source: http://www.apple.com

In the past: barcode scanning = dedicated, costly

hardware Outstanding scanning performance

But users had to carry dedicated, clunky & costly devices

Smartphone + Built-In Camera + Imaging Software =

Barcode scanner in every consumer’s & employee’s

hands Consumer use cases: Price comparison, Coupons,

Shopping Lists, ….

Enterprise use cases: Mobile Point-Of-Sale, Asset

Management, Ticketing, Procurement, …..

3

OUR VISION @ SCANDIT

Develop a smartphone barcode scanner that has laser-like, enterprise-grade scanning performance

4

SCANDIT SDK

Scandit SDK is the most user-friendly &

developer-friendly mobile barcode scanning

technology

Highest scanning speed & robustness

Supports iOS and Android devices

Supports all major barcode formats

Easy to integrate into your Xamarin app

Attractive pricing plan (incl. free community version)

SCANDIT DEMO VIDEO

http://www.scandit.com/video

BARCODE READER:

BARCODE SCANNING CHALLENGES WITH

SMARTPHONES

7

CHALLENGE: NO AUTOFOCUS CAMERA

8

CHALLENGE: LOW RESOLUTION CAMERA MODULES

Android low-end phones have cheap camera modules

Camera resolution can be as low as 320x480

In total, there are 100+ million smartphone and tablets that have fixed focus and low resolution cameras

9

CHALLENGE: BLURRY IMAGESWITH AUTOFOCUS DEVICES

Wrong focus point

Camera unable to focus on objects

too close

10

CHALLENGE: AUTOFOCUS DELAY

Time

Autofocus duration on iPhone 4S: ~1 secDelay to start autofocus: ~0.3-1 sec

11

CHALLENGE: ANDROID DIVERSITY

Different Android devices implement high-level camera API differently

Scandit provides regular software updates to address the Android device idiosyncracies

12

CHALLENGE: PACKAGING, FORM FACTOR & LIGHTING

Crumpled surface

Non-uniform background

Transparent code on round surface

Thinbarcode

Glare

13

CHALLENGE: USER INTERACTION

Lack of visual cue from laser makes alignment of barcode difficult

Detecting barcode orientations and high dynamic range is essential

14

UNDERLYING MAGIC: ADVANCED IMAGE PROCESSING IN REAL-TIME

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 7000

50

100

150

200

250

300

brightness values along blurry scan line

position in scan line / pixels

bri

gh

tne

ss v

alu

e

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 7000

50

100

150

200

250

300

brightness values along sharp scan line

position in scan line / pixels

bri

gh

tne

ss v

alu

e

15

BARCODE SYMBOLOGIES SUPPORTED

Scandit SDK supports all major barcode symbologies: EAN13, UPC12, EAN8, UPC8, Code128, Code39, MSI, ITF,

QR, Datamatrix, PDF417(beta)

16

PLANS & PRICING

CUSTOMIZATION

18

BARCODE DECODER CONFIGURATION

Switch off all barcode symbologies not supported by your app:

e.g.:picker.SetDataMatrixEnabled (false);

picker.SetQrEnabled (false);

picker.SetItfEnabled (false);

19

SCAN UI CONFIGURATION

Customize the Scan UI via OverlayController API:

e.g.:picker.OverlayController.ShowToolBar(true);

picker.OverlayController.ShowSearchBar(true);

picker.OverlayController.SetTorchEnabled(true);

picker.OverlayController.SetCameraSwitchVisibility(

SICameraSwitchVisibility.Always);

20

SCAN UI INTEGRATION

Add your own elements:

UIToolbar toolbar = new UIToolbar(new RectangleF (0, 200, 320, 49));

picker.OverlayController.View.AddSubview (toolbar);

picker.OverlayController.View.BringSubviewToFront (toolbar);

23

INDUSTRY FEEDBACK

Eliane Fiolet

I was impressed by the speed of the scanning technology …. the bar code scanner is better [than RedLaser], …you can capture a barcode even when it is not positioned horizontally, and RedLaser is unable to do it.

Cheryl Morris

[…] tested the scanner through plastic wrapping, on curved bottles and even with scratched barcodes, and all were read successfully. [...] BostInnovation also tested Scandit against competitor Shopsavvy [...], which did not recognize one of the item’s barcodes […]. Overall, Scandit is much faster at recognizing items, […].

Aaron Emigh, CTO

“Scandit is accurate and amazingly fast. It provides a great user experience. Furthermore, Scandit provides great support as a partner.“

Nicholas Florin, CEO CH

“The Scandit SDK provides the fastest and most accurate barcode scanning performance of all solutions we tested. We can recommend Scandit SDK as a reliable and easy-to-implement mobile phone-based barcode scanning solution.“

24

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Scandit SDK

Is the fastest and most accurate mobile barcode scanning technology available today

Maintains its excellent performance under conditions where others fail:

Devices without Autofocus/Low Resolution Cameras

Shadows, warped surfaces, different color barcodes etc.

With an outstanding developer support team

Easy to integrate

With an attractive price plan