Is there a DLL, SDK or libary that can read barcodes using a webcam inside code?

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Hi,

I've been looking for a way to use a web cam (logitech ar orbit:v-uu22a) to read a barcode (of various kinds) from inside vb.net code. I have found two products (katahashi and bcweb) that will work with a web came but they run from their own guis. Is there some software that will read barcodes using a web came from inside code?

Thanks,
Neil<<br mode="hold" />
What I have tried:

Did google search and read through at least 50 products

Posted 13-Apr-16 17:07pm

fig000

Updated 13-Apr-16 19:33pm

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 1 · 2016-04-13T19:33:00

Solution 1

Web camera is one thing, barcode recognition is another one. Honestly, it would be bad to answer again and again two questions answered so many times. See, for example:
Webcam,
Barcode.

And this is on CodeProject along…

Can you use it? First of all, it depends on the barcode standards you want to cover.

—SA

Posted 13-Apr-16 19:33pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

fig000 14-Apr-16 11:42am

I have spent an hour and a half looking through some of these posts. I think I will have to be more specific:
I want to take a v-uu22a logitech webcam and use it to read at least the 39 barcode (there may be others; I am working on government standards and there are always gotchas). Are you saying that either the set of webcam articles OR the set of barcode articles will work for my requirements. Is there an obvious link between barcode reading and use of a specific web cam that I don't know about.
I am assuming that the code will have to be "barcode savvy" to use the webcam to read barcodes; this is not just recording an image and I will assume that the algorithms that read barcodes in general are not natively part of the web cam bag of tricks. I did see one or two articles that clearly link the two but in most cases they involve companies like dynamsoft which costs an arm and a leg. I am looking for a dll/ocx/sdk that will allow me to do this for free. I realize that my requirements weren't in the original post.
I will point out that I have noticed a trend, only in the last year, of moderators assuming that the original poster did not look at google; it seems to have become a trend. I spent four hours trying different wording for my search but only came up with Katanashi and bcweb which both have guis and are therefore useless because they can't be accessed from code. I have seen many of the posts you pointed me to in this search which I undertook yesterday. I will sincerely compliment you for kindly implying that "things have been on codeproject all along". You are civil which is not always the case and I give you Kudos for that.
There is also the issue of "I don't know what I don't know". This is an important issue since everyone has a learning curve with certain technologies; this is my first dance with barcode reading using web cams. I have been on both ends of this: being skilled and watching someone do something that is essentially stupid from an informed point of view AND being a newbie who didn't know what the issues are and said essentially idiotic things. I recently worked with someone who is new to web programming who thought you needed to use a browser to do a post even if there was no form or any other data transfer code in the browser in the form of html. I told him he needed to write post code outside of the browser. He is an excellent database administrator so obviously he is dealing with the ubiquitous problem of "not knowing what he doesn't know". Most of work with computers involves concepts that are not immediately intuitive without some experience in the particular area.
Sorry for the verbosity. I am simply trying to say that any of us could be dumped in technology that would completely mystify us. This fact has been ignored for the most part on forums. I understand that you HAVE had to hold someone's hand who doesn't want to spend the hour or two finding info on the web that is annoying an very irresponsible.
Please let me know if I am missing the point or if I am right and I need some specifc dlls/sdks to do what I want to do. If I can't find what I'm looking for I will turn to actually barcode readers which may be less difficult to deal with.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 14-Apr-16 12:02pm

No problem with verbosity, even most of the things you write are well too obvious.

Yes, cameras are totally unrelated to barcodes. How else? (Remember, they are not laser barcode scanners. Once you said "web camera", I discuss cameras.) If a camera can take pictures, it takes pictures. You do it and then try to recognize a barcode.

Now about assumptions on the inquirers, about Web search. Sorry if you feel uncomfortable with that, but majority of inquirers don't do it seriously. And we don't know who are we talking to, at first. So what would you suggest? Pointing out some references or simply and advice on search is one of the most efficient steps.

Now, let's speculate what I could think or you, personally. You are assuming that you can find an executable module to do it for you. But why? You are searching the Web, but looking not at what you have to look. No miracle DLLs. If no image-recognition software comes with your camera, forget this camera, consider it as a generic Web camera. Look for the image recognition software meeting barcode recognition requirements. I guess camera preview and picture taking should not be a problem. Don't try to solve unrelated problems at once, divide and conquer, and so on. What, do I assume to much again? But you have no reason to blame me. In worst case, I misunderstood you, but you can always correct me.

—SA

fig000 · Answer 2 · 2016-04-14T10:38:00

Sergey,

Thanks for responding. I will say that your response was a bit confusing. Firstly, cameras are not totally unrelated to barcodes except in the abstract. If you'll look at some of the list of posts you asked me to look at you'll see at least two sdks that do what I asked about: Katanashi and bcweb. Clearly these people wouldn't be making any money if this concept of a barcode being read from a webcam is just "silly" as you imply. In addition there are two products with gui wrappers that do the same thing.

I need to be able to read the barcodes from vb.net code so Katanashi and bcweb are out. Then there is bytescout and dynamsoft that do exactly what I want. However, as with all products that have almost no competition, they are charging rediculous fees for their software which I don't want to pass on to my company. The licensing for both START at about $1000.

There are probably more products than this but I have not found them.

I will point out that in my long career that I've found many times that products that support conceptually disparate products and join them, have existed from the dawn of development. It all depends on the market. Sometime I have found nothing to help me, sometimes I have found ten products. The point is that you have to approach any search based on the assumption that the product may be there because it often is. That is the conceptual framework for searches like this, not the abstract idea that two things don't fit together.

I have been at this for two days, writing to various people and to a certain extent you are right about there being a problem joining cameras and barcodes. I JUST found out that there are difficulties with cameras due to focus issues, issues of color and light. Cameras are not immediately that good at barcode reading. I know that now; I didn't before. Still it is possible to merge them and someone thought it was a good idea to do do so. My initial interest in using web cams was to save money by not having to buy another device. But it seems that it may be cheaper to use barcode readers. Just found that out. Live and learn. And it turns out that the web cam I thought was cheap that we use costs $310. This is what you learn as you go along.

As for the "did you look at google" issue I do believe that politeness is paramount. Not that you were mean but I have seen a lot of people are mean and it serves no purpose. I got an answer to this same question from a moderator on MSDN who simply found one example for me of what I wanted (bytescout) and referred me to an article about the deficiencies of Web cams for reading bar codes. I doubt he spent much time on it and it gave me a direction to go in. I am now not a fan of reading barcodes with web cams.

I remember a sql server web site I posted on years ago. I was not the "bad boy" but someone else's post was met with something like, "How dare you post substandard sql on our site (it wasn't ISO 92 or whatever the standard was back then). I will argue that if you want to create an elite site, advertise it as an elite site. Otherwise the inevitable will happen. People who have never written a decent query in their lives will be on the site asking questions. The idea of the perfect site with only perfect developers is a myth. We all sucked at one time, even if it was only for a few months. It's reality.

I appreciate your help whether it sounds like it or not. Taking the time to answer me is a lot.I will move on to barcode scanners and whatever software may come with them which I assume will be mostly drivers and some utilities. Hopefully I can spare you any more trouble :-)

Neil