Quick uploading of Book cover or Profile picture using Webcam

Though I am still tinkering with my new toy, Adobe Flash, I completed one feature that could help quickly upload a picture for a book that has no cover image available or quickly take a snap shot for your profile picture.

The camera tab uses a flash component to connect to your webcam and then you can start taking pictures. Clicking the capture image button will upload the picture to GuruLib server.

A flash based webcam barcode reader

Finally, I completed a webcam based barcode reader that is written in flash. The earlier method of uploading the pictures resulted in lot of failed reading. Naturally nobody really used that feature. Meanwhile, I was searching for a technology that will allow webcam capture from a browser. Adobe Flash seemed to be the ideal choice. So after couple of days of learning to program in flash, I ported my barcode decoding code to flash. I am still testing this new feature and would like to have some feedback on the effectiveness of this new barcode reader . A 1 minute video instruction of how to use webcam as a barcode scanner

You can find the demo flash webcam barcode reader here .

webcam are not designed to work as barcode readers, so this flash component won’t work as fast as the barcode readers in walmart. You need to bring the barcode very near to the webcam and should have a steady hand. The barcode picture below will give you an approximate idea how close you need to bring the barcode to the webcam. The flash code need a good barcode picture with white bars and black bars clearly visible. If your hands are shaky, the webcam blurs the image. Let me know your experience and I will try to improve it.

UPDATE: Cheap webcams don’t have enough resolution to work as barcode scanners. I use Philips SPC325NC Webcam. I bought this webcam for around $35 from Walmart. Also make sure that your webcam’s manual focus control is set such that it gives a good focus at approx. 2 – 3 inches from the webcam. Additionally, having a good lighting in the room should help.

Ice Storm Shut off GuruLib

The big ice storm in the mid west of US shut the power supply longer than the backup generators could handle. GuruLib was down from 10:00 AM CST to 7:30 PM CST. Sorry for the inconvenience.

New Look for GuruLib

Jordan Varble, a fellow UMR student and my friend has officially joined the GuruLib team. He was solely responsible for the new look and feel of GuruLib.

Finally GuruLib will have a web 2.0 look. Jordan is also the co-creator of J&P Adventures, a website devoted to his passion for traveling. You will be seeing more of Jordan’s magic in the following months. The new look will need another week or so before it is fully integrated into GuruLib.