[Fluggey]

Hi,

I am looking to design an app which can scan a unique number using the iPhone camera. Then using the unique number locate the number in a Filemaker database and return the data from the Filemaker database back to iPhone in the smallest file size format possible.

Kindest regards,

Fluggey.

[salem]

You mean in the same way that the camera can be used to scan a QR code and launch the browser

Only you point the camera at say a barcode or some other visual representation of a number (like 1234)

[Fluggey]

Hi Salem,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes i do mean the same way in which a camera scans a QR code.
I am in the process of making a database which will generate 2 letter and 6 numbers which the iPhone camera needs to recognise.
(e.g. BH856954)
Would this be possible with the iPhone camera / iOS to recognise this.

Kindest regards,
Fluggey.

[salem]

If
a) that number were printed on some physical medium (like paper), which you point the camera at and press "take picture".

b) you have some Optical Character Recognition software running on your device which can be notified that you have taken a picture, and can then attempt to analyse the image to recover the text.

The alternative is to put a prompt up for your camera user saying "Please enter the 2 letters and 6 numbers you're looking at", and enable the keyboard dialog.
Which is probably going to be quicker for most people once they've used it a few times.

[maz007]

Originally Posted by Fluggey

Hi Salem,

Thanks for the reply.

Yes i do mean the same way in which a camera scans a QR code.
I am in the process of making a database which will generate 2 letter and 6 numbers which the iPhone camera needs to recognise.
(e.g. BH856954)
Would this be possible with the iPhone camera / iOS to recognise this.

Kindest regards,
Fluggey.

I would really like to work on this kind of app. PM me. May be we can of each others help.

Thanks.

[BlastPort]

If it's an option to use a barcode/QR-code, then I'd use a library like Zbar or ZXing to do it, as then you won't have to worry at all about the camera and image recognition piece of it. Those codes are very easy to generate too.

Then for the Filemaker piece, you'd just need to write the objective-c code to tap into their API's. I'm not very familiar with them, but I did some light searching, and it seems they have pretty good documentation on how to call their API's. I'd use a library like RestKit to do the API legwork for you.