Increase operator performance and customer satisfaction with augmented reality and continuous camera scanning!
(“AR” or “RA” = Augmented Reality)
We have mastered these technologies in order to apply and include them in our professional applications for code entry assistance, and for searching for precise barcodes in an area of the screen to add data or visual and audio value: so you’ll always be at the height of the assistance provided by an Android smartphone!
Quick video demo: continuous reading and RA assistance with barcode selection identifier: 30s (silent)
Principles used
As a conclusion to our research and performance enhancement work on Android cameras, including our announcement on the speed of camera barcode reading, we have achieved high-speed detection and continuous automatic reading of barcodes passing under the camera’s field of view.
Remember that in most cases, barcodes encode data: product identifiers, price details, batch numbers, and so on.
Beyond retail, barcodes can be found in fields such as healthcare: patient wristbands, hospital prescriptions, parcel tracking logistics and library management: cataloguing books. Their effectiveness lies in their universality: whether on a cereal box or a museum exhibit, they are primarily used to present an identifier that can be decoded without copying errors. This barcode identifier facilitates rapid data retrieval by networks.
We superimpose a layer (transparent AR overlay) on top of the camera’s reading layer (which decodes barcodes / QR codes), on which we add the required information in real time: here in the demo, a green frame of the barcode you’re looking for. This technology includes QR-code technology, which generates an AR image. Imagine pointing your smartphone at a historic monument and suddenly, historical figures come to life, telling stories of bygone days. AR guides operators through complex machine repairs, overlaying step-by-step instructions on their smartphone.
We do NOT need special glasses: just a smartphone and just look at the screen while aiming at the product. We could actually send this layer of information back to a screen like special glasses to make it “total hands-free”, but that’s not in the budget of our target customers. On our overlay, we can add functions such as a button that takes the user (operator or consumer) to another application, an explanatory PDF or a zoom photo of the room, etc…
Note: we use our own source code and no SDKs from other companies, so imagination is your limit. We also sell complete applications based on these functions; no SDKs are sold.
Examples of applications
As we saw above, augmented reality based on barcodes will increase the amount of information available to the user, whether operator or customer, enabling them to get to the heart of the matter more quickly. It will therefore serve in
In addition, the scan function, continuous reading of barcodes, enables you to quickly make inventories of unique codes (item code with carton number for example) or if you don’t have unique codes but similar codes, you can scan and uniquely count everything on the screen, screen by screen (a screen can be a pallet).
For code verification by pallet or by shelf, by combining the 2 functions (continuous scanning and augmented reality), we can identify on a screen which reference is different from the majority of those on the screen: thus visually identify the different product(s) that have no business being in that batch.
AR in retail / stores
except that we don’t make public apps, so we have to “organize” the provision of Android devices to customers, AR in-store pushes information to customers: create attractive tools for your customers with us. Customers scan to check a nutri-score or view promotions. Instead of customers, we can imagine putting these functions in the hands of the salesperson, if your store has a last-step tip selling system.
At the same time, your employees work faster and have access to product information on the shelves.
As far as AR for store employees is concerned, it’s the same as that developed below for stock management AR.
AR for mail and parcel retrieval
hovering over a pile of parcels in a van with legible codes identifies the parcel the letter carrier or deliveryman is looking for. Location functions can be added: registration of the drop-off position or a map search of the position (existing app on this site).
AR in stock management:
As the value and symbology of each code is analyzed in real time as soon as the barcode or QR code, Datamatrix (see list of fonts below) passes in front of the camera, a very precise selection of values can be stored in memory for use in the data entry process at a later date.
For example, if you have a list sheet of item barcodes and order numbers (printed from an ERP) with distinctive values in the codes.
The continuous mode will allow you to press a button on the screen while passing the camera in front of the sheet, in order to create a digital order picking list in the smartphone: then, depending on the information present, you can imagine helping the order picking operator, in logistics, such as telling him exactly where to put away the products he receives, or finding the items he needs to prepare for an order.
What’s more, with an added function, we can interactively indicate on the operator’s screen and audibly where the item is located or where it should be put away with the same barcode as on the list prepared beforehand!
Which mobile can scan what?
You can scan continuously with the camera of an Android smartphone from version 8 upwards.
Barcode scanning speed depends on (recall) :
- the quality of the optics, the firmware of your camera (always the one on the back of the device), imager or scanner integrated into your smartphone, in this case called a “rugged terminal”.
- the quality, font and size of your printed barcodes: if you have items or labels that you don’t know how to print, reading the barcode font (see barcode reading principle) will take more or less seconds or milliseconds, depending on the reader, or may not be readable at all!
- the position of the barcodes on the label: proximity, number, white “quiet zone” around each one,
- software ergonomics: the position of keys and touchpads will save you one or two seconds per scan,
- the amount of information to be completed by the operator: this depends on the needs of the application.
About standard formats / fonts / symbologies:
- linear formats: Codabar, Code 39, Code 93, Code 128, EAN-8, EAN-13, ITF, UPC-A et UPC-E
- 2D formats: Aztec, Data Matrix, PDF417, code QR
We can add defined symbology selections to our applications.
Ask us for the test app loading link.
You already have an Android smartphone and would like to test your printed labels with our drivers, so that we can develop them for you?
New free demo app for continuous camera scanning and Augmented Reality (AR) search: Apk provided on Productivix private repository, on request - link and loading QRcode provided To install, read here
Limit of 30 searches, no data stored in the phone or communicated on the net.