Android Scan
Monday April 14, 2008 at 10:28 AM
So today is the deadline for the Android Developer Challenge, and I just finished up my submission. It’s a sweet tool that can show you pricing and metadata for anything with a barcode. Here’s a few of the features that make it stand out:
- Automatic barcode recognition using phone camera
- Shows CD, DVD, or book cover along with detailed reviews
- Searches over a dozen stores, both online and brick+mortar
- Tracklisting for CDs and play sample tracks right on phone
- For books, searches local libraries to see if they have a copy
It’s called Android Scan and I’ve put up some documentation and a quick video that shows it in action with an external camera and real-world barcodes.
Once the developer challenge is over in mid-May I’ll be releasing both the Android and Python server source code under a GPLv3 open-source license. Send me an E-mail if you have any ideas or comments. I’m pumped about getting an actual Android device later this year.

