Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Scanning a Bar Code off Iphone Screen

T

TubbyCow

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 8, 2007
35
1
I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible to scann an barcode off o the iphone screen.

I recieved a train ticket confirmation via e-mail and need to take the printed confirmation to a kiosk at the station to print off the real ticket. the confirmation has a barcode which gets scanned. The barcode in the e-mail is able to be expanded quite largly and is very clearly on my screen, so it got me thinking if it is just possible to scan the iphone screen. Is the scan able to read a barcode on an iphone screen?

I'm not sure how a barcode scanner works, and realize i could just easily print it off and scan it, but thought i would ask.
 
Possible, but unlikely. The bits and pieces that go into a barcode aren't read too well under about 250ppi-300ppi, sometimes higher, depending on the reader.
 
My advice would be to print it off anyway as a back up and give it a go scanning straight from the screen.

I think it will work as I know Nokia have been sending gig tickets (barcodes) in this way for a while.
 
TubbyCow said:
I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible to scann an barcode off o the iphone screen.

I recieved a train ticket confirmation via e-mail and need to take the printed confirmation to a kiosk at the station to print off the real ticket. the confirmation has a barcode which gets scanned. The barcode in the e-mail is able to be expanded quite largly and is very clearly on my screen, so it got me thinking if it is just possible to scan the iphone screen. Is the scan able to read a barcode on an iphone screen?

I'm not sure how a barcode scanner works, and realize i could just easily print it off and scan it, but thought i would ask.
Click to expand...

wont work
 
airline check-in

Actually you can use it for bar codes. Continental and Delta have pilot plans for you to use the boarding pass barcode on your phone to scan and go onto the plane. I was tempted to try and use it last time I flew them, BUT at the time it was only a week old and I assumed I might have a problem getting through security screening with only my phone! Phone has to go thru xray, but you need to keep the boarding pass with you as you walk through metal detector???:confused:
 
Most likely not - I've tried to scan barcodes on an LCD screen using a laser scanner (which all the halfway decent ones are, since they tend to scan much better) and it just doesn't work. I think it has something to do with the reflectivity of the LCD screen versus that of paper. If they're using a CCD scanner or a 2d imager it might work, but it's iffy and they probably aren't using that kind of scanner.
 
TubbyCow said:
I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible to scann an barcode off o the iphone screen.

I recieved a train ticket confirmation via e-mail and need to take the printed confirmation to a kiosk at the station to print off the real ticket. the confirmation has a barcode which gets scanned. The barcode in the e-mail is able to be expanded quite largly and is very clearly on my screen, so it got me thinking if it is just possible to scan the iphone screen. Is the scan able to read a barcode on an iphone screen?

I'm not sure how a barcode scanner works, and realize i could just easily print it off and scan it, but thought i would ask.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't risk it. Try using your iPhone, but have the paper with you just in case.

Don
 
That would be a sweet deal if it was possible, but it sounds like it isn't. I hate having coupons in my e-mail but no way of printing them if I'm on the go.
 
I scanned my grocery store cards, various retail store rewards cards, etc into a photo album on my iPhone. Not a single store was able to scan the barcode. They blamed the screen.
 
Umm... it's not the iPhone camera, it's the glass covering the screen. If there was no glass, then it would probably work... but the glass just screws everything up.
 
I used ActPrinter to put my electronic boarding passes (with UPCs) on my iPhone last time I flew.

Technically, it worked; every scanner I tried (I flew Delta and United) was able to read the barcode off the iPhone screen.

Realistically, it failed, because the human security guards refused to accept the digital version. One mentioned that he'd heard they'd be allowed to some time in the future but that they couldn't yet. (Apparently some airports do already allow it throughout)
 
I have successfully scanned a Continental check-in barcode from my iPhone's screen at the ticket kiosk. I believe those scanners are cameras though, with a little laser box to show you where the camera is pointing, that's different from most bar-code readers where the laser actually does the scanning and would probably just bounce off the glass.
 
I scanned my Hollywood Videos Membership Card, Sam's Club, Costco, Public Library Card and my athletic club card with my ScanSnap. I saved the scanned images into iPhoto and made up a photo album that I synced with my iPhone.

The bar codes are read just fine by all. My wallet now consists of my drivers license and two credit cards.
 
Scanning a barcode from a mobile phone screen

Hi all,

I was reading through all the comments and was wondering would anyone be able to help me with a problem or provide any suggestions.

My name is Graham and I am currently working on a simple college project. This project involves creating a simple database which stores a number of barcodes. These barcodes must then be scanned and the correct data received from the scanner (e.g. uni or omni-directional). This works fine for the barcodes that are printed on a piece of paper but when I try to scan the barcodes from my mobile phone screen, nothing seems to happen.

As from the mixed comments above, there's much confusion to whether this would be possible (i.e. a barcode to be scanned from a generic phone screen). Does anyone know how this could work, or is it possible??

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Graham
 
Gbayo1 said:
As from the mixed comments above, there's much confusion to whether this would be possible (i.e. a barcode to be scanned from a generic phone screen). Does anyone know how this could work, or is it possible??
Click to expand...

For the fun of it, I just tried with my iPhone and barcode scanner at my desk here at work. Barcode scanner is a Wasp Technologies model WWS-800. I tried a few barcodes with the brightness set to auto but that didn't work. Then I changed the brightness down to almost it's lowest level. After about 3 minutes of constantly scanning at different angles and distances I finally got my scanner to beep and get a successful scan, but I was not able to replicate it. Not sure what else you can try to make this more viable, perhaps changing the background around the barcode to a different color other than white may help the scanners pick it up better.
 
I used an e-boarding pass for the Heathrow Express on my iPhone and the ticket checker had no problems scanning the barcode on my screen, it was one of the 2D barcodes so that may have been why.
 
Have you tried the app Cardstar? It allows you to put membership cards on your iPhone with bar codes.
 
ssnspoon said:
Actually you can use it for bar codes. Continental and Delta have pilot plans for you to use the boarding pass barcode on your phone to scan and go onto the plane. I was tempted to try and use it last time I flew them, BUT at the time it was only a week old and I assumed I might have a problem getting through security screening with only my phone! Phone has to go thru xray, but you need to keep the boarding pass with you as you walk through metal detector???:confused:
Click to expand...

I want to try that.

I always print my own from home and then have them print it for me at the airport. I'm paranoid!! So I would try the phone first and if it didn't work, switch to paper.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back