Extracting image content from USB barcode scanner help.

[Wrezz]

Hello there,
I am currently working on a project in which I am working towards using a laser barcode scanner as a camera.
For the time being, I have been looking into extracting images from optical mice, are the concepts the same? So far extracting the image data seems to be a little elusive, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with barcode scanners and the software needed to work with them?

Currently I am using a type LS2600 cable USB barcode scanner.

Super beginner but very capable. Ive been working with arduino for the past year if that helps anyone.

I'd really like to hear from you guys.

[joshnoth]

Sorry, I am not sure I have understood your question very well. Could you be more specific with the "image content"? What image content are you trying to get with a USB barcode scanner?

[makaveil4202]

I have a USB barcode scanner and been using it for a while. But I just use it to extract info encoded in barcode images, not some other kind of images. So I have no idea if you can use the barcode scanner as a camera to extract images from optical mice.
Here I Googled how exactly a barcode scanner works, you might take a look and try with ur own thing.
Basically, there are 3 functional parts to the barcode scanner itself, the illumination system, the sensor / converter, and the decoder.
Barcode scanners begin by illuminating the code with red light. The sensor of the barcode scanner detects the reflected light from the illumination system and generates an analog signal with varying voltage that represent the intensity (or lack of intensity) of the reflection. The converter changes the analog signal to a digital signal which is fed to the decoder. The decoder interprets the digital signal, does that math required to confirm and validate that the barcode is decipherable, converts it into ASCII text, formats the text and sends it to the computer the scanner is attached to.

[macjone]

Hello there,
I am currently working on a project in which I am working towards using a laser barcode scanner as a camera.
For the time being, I have been looking into extracting images from optical mice, are the concepts the same? So far extracting the image data seems to be a little elusive, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with barcode scanners and the software needed to work with them?

Currently I am using a type LS2600 cable USB barcode scanner.

Super beginner but very capable. Ive been working with arduino for the past year if that helps anyone.

I'd really like to hear from you guys.

well, you can simply use some OCR library to extract data from image, so why do you have to use barcode scanner anyway?

[massonmilo]

well, you can simply use some OCR library to extract data from image, so why do you have to use barcode scanner anyway?

Extracting image with OCR tech? As i know, OCR technology can recognize information from image, but cannot help with reading barcode except for integrating with a barcode reader source. Am i right?

[coldraven]

AFAIK a USB barcode scanner is recognised just as a keyboard, it will enter text into fields and that's it.
If you want to experiment with a web-cam then install Zbar

sudo apt-get install zbar-tools

Then run

zbarcam

Maybe it is possible to capture the image at the moment that zbarcam outputs the scanned barcode data, if that is what you need.